David Coltart
Jacana Media Ltd, 2016
This is an important book. It is a long yet engaging read, describing many dramatic events. It provokes feelings of frustration at the corruption described, and admiration towards those who work for good against the odds.
David Coltart was born in Zimbabwe in 1957:
“Although only a first generation African on my paternal side, I am the fifth generation born in Africa on my maternal side” P.9.
He is a human rights lawyer and was at one time Minister for Education. He is currently Treasurer General of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Alliance.
The fifty years of tyranny covered in his book are from 1965, the white minority rule of Ian Smith, through to Robert Mugabe’s rule and finishes at December 2015.
The first 100 pages of this 600 page book are rather slow going, as Coltart describes his childhood, when naturally he was not at the centre of political events. The other 500 pages are a roller coaster ride as he recounts the assassination attempts on his life and his legally representing the opposition activists who were arrested on trumped-up charges and tortured. In addition to being a personal account, it should be a valuable historical record.
In the early part of the book we read that he:
“changed from a teenager who thought that Ian Smith was a hero into an adult who believes his policies were both disastrous and morally wrong.” P.xiii.
He describes his Christian conversion, a process which began when on national military service:
“The brutality of war dehumanised men on both sides and the use of torture was mentioned glibly […] seeing and believing the total depravity of man, something which overwhelmed me because I felt unable to influence or even temper it […] worked towards my understanding the absolute depravity of man and my coming to faith in Jesus Christ, whose character was the antithesis of evil.” p.81, 84.
Once ZANU PF had taken power they were determined to keep it. They took control of the media, shutting down independent media outlets. They rigged elections. They corrupted the judiciary by political appointment of Judges. For example, Coltart organised a legal challenge to rigged elections:
“Our legal team, comprising advocates Gauntlett, De Bourbon and Happias Zhou, filed a 158-page heads of argument […] It took Gauntlett more than a day to argue all these points before the presiding judge, Ben Hlatshwayo. The learned judge had been rewarded with his own land, taken in 2002 when “he arrived at (commercial farmer) Vernon Nicolle’s 580 hectares in Banket, snatched the keys from the maid and declared the place his”. […] Hlatshwayo took seven months to hand down his judgment, showing utter contempt for the rules of court which required election petitions to be dealt with urgently. His response to the 158-page heads of argument prepared by arguably South Africa’s finest constitutional lawyer was a one page judgment, summarily dismissing Tsvangirai’s claims. […] No doubt Hlatshwayo realised he couldn’t find any coherent legal reasons to dismiss the case […] so relied on brevity.” P.392.
When he was an opposition member of Parliament, Coltart worked hard to expose and oppose the ZANU PF misrule. For example:
“Parliament resumed on 20 January 2004. One of the first orders of business was to debate a further amendment to the Land Acquisition Act. […] I immediately raised a point of order […] I argued that it was a crime for any MP to participate in a debate if he or she had a direct pecuniary interest in the matter. Tabling a list of 37 ZANU PF MPs, together with the farms they had acquired […] I argued that all those on the list were precluded from debating. It was particularly embarrassing for some of the MPs who were listed as having several farms and were thus in contravention of ZANU PF’s professed policy of one farm per person. […] Mnangagwa found that my claim was “mischievous, frivolous and devoid of legal logic and validity”. It was another classic case of facts being turned on their head, the accuser becoming the accused.” P.398.
When a corrupt Government controls the media, the police and the judiciary, it seems impossible to get justice, yet Coltart keeps trying and remains committed to non-violence even after all non-violent means have failed.
He is then faced with the dilemma of when to compromise.
In 2008, after more rigged elections, and an economy collapsing, there was intervention by President Mbeki of South Africa, who brokered a coalition government of ZANU-PF and the two MDC parties. ZANU PF retained most of the levers of power by controlling ministries such as justice and defence, but Coltart was offered the role of Minister of Education as one of the MDC ministers:
“I was to become a minister in a cabinet led by Mugabe. I received the news with mixed emotions. The thought of working with a group of people responsible for so much suffering, some of whom were guilty of crimes against humanity, appalled me. Against this I knew that Zimbabwe faced total collapse and there were no viable – that is, peaceful, non-violent – alternatives at hand. My wife, my church – all the people around me whom I trusted – encouraged me that it was the right thing to do. […]
When we all congregated to take the oath of office […] I lined up with several of the men who had threatened us for a decade; some of whom had been behind the murders of friends; others in all likelihood had been involved in the planning of my own arrest and attempted assassination.” P.485, P.488.
His start as Minister of Education was not encouraging:
“from the first moment I walked into the headquarters of the ministry […] it was apparent that a catastrophe awaited me […] the building had been without water for about eighteen months […] none of the toilets […] had been flushed in weeks […] When I got to my office, the thing that struck me first was that there was no internet; not even a computer. I asked about this and was informed that my predecessor had not been computer literate so there’d been no need for the internet. Within minutes of being ushered into that office, the ministry’s Transport manager came rushing in, somewhat breathless, to inform me that I needed to get down quickly to the government Transport office to collect my brand new white Mercedes Benz, which the ministry had reserved for me. At this time I was aware that there were some 90 000 teachers on strike because they hadn’t been paid for months […] And there was no money to remedy the situation. Because of this I felt it would send all the wrong messages to the teachers’ unions if my first act as Education minister was to secure a luxury Mercedes Benz limousine. So I declined the offer. […]
I contacted an engineer friend and asked him to investigate why there was no water in our headquarters building. It turned out that a US$800 sump pump, which pumped water to the storage tanks at the top of the high-rise building, had failed. As I knew Biti had no money, I looked elsewhere for assistance. The Australian ambassador responded positively to my request for help and within a few weeks water was flowing throughout the building and the stench had gone” P.489, 490, 493.
Coltart managed to achieve a good deal when he was Minister for Education, including getting the international community to fund textbooks for schools, under a scheme where there was confidence that the funds could not be diverted.
Then in 2013 there was another fraudulent election and Coltart was not re-elected in his Bulawayo East constituency:
“Mugabe was privy to plans afoot that would guarantee his victory.
Those plans became obvious soon after polling commenced on 31 July. I had decided to focus my attention on the eight polling stations located within a two-kilometre radius of the only military barracks in Bulawayo East constituency, so I went there at dawn. In the run up to the election, the ZEC [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] had almost trebled the number of poling stations around the barracks without any justification or consultation. In the 2008 election there had been a relatively low turnout at the three polling stations which then surrounded the barracks, but when I arrived at the polling station directly opposite the barracks there was already a long queue outside the station comprised of young men, who although not in uniform, all had close-cropped hair and were wearing new jeans. […] I was also to learn that these young men voted early and often.” P.575
In the final chapter, Coltart reflects on the big picture:
“I and many other Zimbabweans have prayed for decades for corrupt and brutal rule to end, but there does not seem any immediate prospect of that. […]
While colonialism and white rule brought hospitals, schools, roads and railways, it also disrupted an existing culture and humiliated generations of black people. That legacy caused a war which in turn poisoned our entire society. One treacherous legacy resulted in another. […] While the war ended racial discrimination and secured some major social benefits, such as the expansion of education, the fact remains that Zimbabweans are still oppressed by a tiny, corrupt ruling elite and the average per capita income is lower now than when the war was first started half a century ago. […]” P.596-7.
“Isaiah explains that the remedy, if a nation wants God to listen, is to “loose the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free, break every yoke, do away with the pointing finger and malicious talk, share food with the hungry, provide the poor wanderer with shelter, clothe the naked and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood” [Isaiah 58:6-7]. If that is done Isaiah promises that “light will break forth like the dawn, healing will quickly appear, ancient ruins will be rebuilt” and a nation will “be like a well-watered garden”.” P.598.
“Rhodes […] was given demigod status by white Rhodesians, who named the country after him. In many respects Smith assumed Rhodes’s mantle. He enjoyed unquestioned reverence by the vast majority of white Rhodesians. Mugabe is undoubtedly in that mould as well. […] The tragedy is that this hero worship has become deeply ingrained in Zimbabwean political culture. The word of an individual means more than the constitution, more than age-old wisdom. We remain a people constantly searching for the next messiah, be that person Tsvangirai, Mnangagwa or Mujuru. And so for so long as personality means more than policy or principle, Zimbabweans will not see “light break forth like dawn.” P.599-600.
January 2022
Adrian Vincent