War vets demand meeting with Coltart

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14 November 2010

WAR veterans have demanded a meeting with Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister, David Coltart, escalating the war of attrition over the Senator’s statements that Gukurahundi was akin to genocide.
The ex-freedom fighters, led by Joseph Chinotimba, gave Coltart a seven day ultimatum which ended last Thursday, to apologise for his sentiments but the minister has refused to budge.
“They asked for the meeting,” Coltart confirmed yesterday. “I will not apologise, there is no need to.”
War veterans wrote to Coltart asking him to apologise or face the full wrath of former fighters, who threatened to “invade” his office if he failed to.
“Coltart, your utterances have automatically invited war veterans to your office and we are therefore coming to your office for explanations,” reads the letter signed by Chinotimba and war veterans provincial chairman, only referred to as Cde Mpofu. “Indeed, you owe us and all Zimbabweans an apology.”
The war veterans allege that Coltart was a member of the notorious Selous Scouts and therefore was least qualified to speak on the disturbances that rocked Matabeleland and Midlands after independence.
Coltart denies having served as a member of Selous Scout.
“By virtue of your unacceptable background as a former active member of the Rhodesian Selous Scout, you are least qualified to comment on the Matabeleland post-independence disturbances and the so-called human rights violations — which in actual fact do not exist,” reads part of the letter.
Coltart, the war veterans charged, should be grateful for the amnesty and reconciliation he benefited from after President Robert Mugabe took power in 1980.
“Why are you poking your nose in matters that concern blacks? Remember there is an adage which says; if an owl lives together with chickens (sic), it does not mean that it is also a chicken,” the letter continues.
The former freedom fighters also accused Coltart and Roy Bennett of being unrepentant, jeopardising the livelihoods of white commercial farmers that had remained on farms.
“Your utterances have given us second thoughts on those white farmers who are still on our land. It is crystal clear that some former Rhodies the likes of Bennett and yourself are not even apologetic of their unacceptable background.
“Shame on you Coltart! We have had enough of your nonsense and we can no longer brook in any more (sic),” the letter states.
On his part Coltart said he had been partly misquoted in the story but maintained that colonial and post-colonial human rights abuses should be addressed.