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Midlands Correspondent
Zapu is keen to join a coalition being touted by the MDC Renewal Team, party vice-president Emilia Mukaratirwa has said.
In an interview on the sidelines of a Zapu meeting in Gweru on Saturday, Mukaratirwa said her party had remained open and willing to form an alliance with the Tendai Biti-led faction and was waiting for the former MDC-T secretary-general to approach them.

The MDC Renewal Team recently claimed that it was courting political parties including the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube and Zapu for a “grand” coalition.

Mukaratirwa said while Biti had not made formal communication to Zapu inviting them to join the coalition, the party was keen to form an alliance with them.

“We are so much open to such arrangements. We remain very open to dialogue with other parties willing to form a grand coalition but of course it has to be parties that share the same principles, values and objectives.

“However, there has not yet been anything formal therefore we cannot give an official position on the matter but we remain open to dialogue. There has not been anything offered with regards to the grand coalition and it is an issue that we have to take to our constituents in various provinces,” she said.

Mukaratirwa conceded that Zapu had the bitter end of an alliance which  they entered with the Prof Ncube-led MDC in the run up to the 2013 harmonised elections where the party lost dismally.

“We have been involved in some of these alliances or coalitions before. We had an alliance with MDC-N in the 2013 elections and we realised that we had the bitter end of these alliances. However, this time around we are going to be wiser,” she said.