Insert a tzinfo into datetime

I have the following tzinfo concrete subclass definition:

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, tzinfo

class ManilaTime(tzinfo):
  def utcoffset(self, dt):
    return timedelta(hours=8)

  def tzname(self, dt):
    return "Manila"

I obtain a date string and would l开发者_开发知识库ike to transform it into a timezone-aware datetime object. I prefer to use the following method:

def transform_date(date_string, tzinfo):
  fmt = '%Y-%m-%d'
  # Where do I insert tzinfo?
  date = datetime.strptime(date_string, fmt)
  return date

Is there some way I could insert the tzinfo into the datetime object in the following manner?

manila = ManilaTime()
date = transform_date('2001-01-01', manila)

def transform_date(date_string, tzinfo):
    fmt = '%Y-%m-%d'
    date = datetime.strptime(date_string, fmt).replace(tzinfo=tzinfo)
    return date