FORMER War Veterans minister Tshinga Dube has hinted on the need for a unity government with main opposition party MDC-T for peace and economic development to prevail. The Makokoba legislator, who won Saturday’s primary election, said he was confident President Emmerson Mnangagwa was going to win the upcoming elections and called on Zimbabweans to give him another five years to turnaround the economy.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
“I am very happy that we won (primary elections), but my biggest wish is that all Zimbabweans rally behind President Mnangagwa so that he can implement his economic policies for the betterment of the country. If we miss this opportunity of supporting Mnangagwa to change our country’s fate, I think we will never have it (chance) again. Dube said Zimbabweans were expending too much energy on politics.
“It is also my wish that we engage with the dynamic young man, the president of the MDC-T, Nelson Chamisa, to come on board so that we unite our people and make sure that instead of channelling our energy into politics, we also concentrate on our economy,” Dube said in an interview yesterday after being announced winner of Zanu PF’s Makokoba primary elections.
However, other candidates, Nothiwani Dlodlo, and Peter Baka Nyoni are contesting the results, citing vote fraud, among other irregularities.
Dube denied the charges, and, instead, accused his opponents of trying to rig the primaries.
The country last had a unity government after the chaotic 2008 elections.
Former President Robert Mugabe was forced into an inclusive government following the controversial polls that saw his opponent, the late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, not participating in a run-off poll because of escalating violence against his supporters.
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Some commentators have called on the need for a transitional government, but Dube argued otherwise.
“If President Mnangagwa continues with his policies and gets a good someone to assist him, this country in 10 years, will not be a third world country, but a first world [one]. Instead of focusing on politics, we need to be focusing on improving our health delivery system, our education and our welfare, among others. Let us give him (Mnangagwa) a chance for the next five years to create jobs for our people,” he added.
MDC-T Bulawayo spokesperson Felix Magalela Mafa-Sibanda, when contacted for comment over the issue of the unity government, referred Southern Eye to the party’s national spokesperson Tabitha Khumalo.
Khumalo’s phone continually rang unanswered.
