The Australian
By Bruce Loudon
23 July 2011
IT’S about the last thing you would expect him to be, but David Coltart is an optimist. After more than 30 years fighting for human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe, constantly locking horns with Robert Mugabe and defying the worst Mugabe’s brutal regime could throw at him, including death threats, it would be no surprise to find him in despair.
But he’s not: far from it. And as he provides rare insights into what it’s like these days to be both a committed opponent and member of Mugabe’s cabinet under the power-sharing arrangement that governs the country, Coltart – Minister for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, and political fighter extraordinaire – is dismissive of the doomsayers.
“Look,” he says, “I’m under absolutely no illusions. This [power-sharing arrangement, which has brought members of Coltart’s Movement for Democratic Change opposition into government alongside Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party] is a very fragile set-up. Anything could happen. But at the moment it’s working. We will inevitably go through more upsets. But things have at least stabilised.”
And he says – remarkably, given his chequered past relations with him – that although Mugabe is 87 and seen by many to be on his last legs, possibly suffering prostate cancer, “anyone who is contemplating the future of Zimbabwe on the basis that Mugabe is not going to be around for very long is making a mistake”.
“No, Mugabe is no monster,” he says emphatically when I ask about the notorious reputation of the man who has held Zimbabwe in his thrall for 31 years. “He is no Idi Amin. Yes, he’s 87 and, yes, he may tire quickly. But he remains a wily political operator. He’s remarkably fit, remarkably fit. He’s lucid.”
Despite his decades of indefatigable opposition to Mugabe’s despotic rule Coltart speaks almost generously of the old man’s efficient management of cabinet meetings, of the extent to which, despite expectations to the contrary, he retains tight control over government – in Coltart’s case, taking keen interest in his education portfolio and supporting his initiatives against others in government.
We are speaking on the eve of Coltart’s departure for Sydney. On Tuesday he will speak on politics and religion at a meeting in the NSW parliament organised by the Centre for Independent Studies. For those seeking insight into Zimbabwe and Mugabe, there could hardly be a better source, for Coltart, a 54-year-old white lawyer and committed Christian, has been fighting for justice in Zimbabwe since Ian Smith’s time.
In the 1980s Coltart played a key role in uncovering the Gukurahundi massacres carried out in Matabeleland by Mugabe’s North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, acts of genocide that remain among the worst atrocities committed by the regime.
“No, Mugabe is not Idi Amin,” says Coltart, a senator whose nomination as education minister was initially forcefully opposed by Mugabe. “But he and ZANU-PF are responsible for some terrible things that can never be forgotten. He’s not a monster but he is a very, very complex man,” he says, echoing a widely held view that many of Mugabe’s excesses stem from what he suffered decades ago under white rule, one instance being when his three-year-old son died and Mugabe, then in prison, was not permitted to attend his funeral.
What about Mugabe’s religion, I ask. Wasn’t he reared a devout Catholic and educated by Jesuits? How does someone with that background gain such notoriety as a tyrant? Is he still so religious?
“Not noticeably,” Coltart says. “But it’s all part of the complex person that he is.”
He recalls how last year when Coltart’s daughter had a serious accident, Mugabe went to great lengths to inquire about her welfare, despite their longstanding political animus.
It is in this mood of co-operation, fragile though it is, that lies the real cause for Coltart’s optimism. Despite the doomsayers and extremist factions within ZANU-PF who are seeking to undermine it, the power-sharing government, he says, is working reasonably well and, importantly, gaining public support.
“In 2008, when the power-sharing deal was done, Zimbabwe was facing total collapse. There was hyperinflation, a cholera epidemic, a collapsed economy, rioting by soldiers, real prospects that Zimbabwe would disintegrate,” Coltart says.
“It’s not a perfect arrangement. Far from it. But it has stabilised the economy.
“There are far fewer human rights abuses than there used to be. Dramatically fewer. Fewer people are being murdered.
“This isn’t Somalia. There is an inherent strength in Zimbabwe. We have rich natural resources. Geographically, we are in the heart of Africa, something that makes what happens in our country important to the whole region.
“We’re making progress. It’s not perfect. But gradually, step by step, we’re getting there. Yes, I am an optimist, if a cautious optimist, but I’m a realist, too.”
Coltart puts Zimbabwe about where South Africa was in the 1990s, before Nelson Mandela’s release and the advent of democratic rule. Importantly, he says, the power-sharing arrangement, as it inches forwards, is winning backers even among elements in the army and police that are hardline supporters of ZANU-PF.
So, what happens now? What about Mugabe’s reported determination to force another election this year before a new constitution can be drawn up that will ensure free and fair elections, and in that way grab another five years in power?
Coltart has no doubt that if free and fair elections are held the opposition will be swept into office. That’s why ZANU-PF wants a new poll now. But South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and the South African Development Community group of nations he leads have made it plain they won’t countenance such undermining of the power-sharing arrangement. They’re determined to ensure there is no election before a new constitution is in place.
So what about sanctions? And what happens after Mugabe?
On sanctions, Coltart declares himself a sceptic and a cynic. They simply don’t work, he insists. Just as they didn’t when Smith declared independence.
He points out that despite atrocities such as the Gukurahundi massacres, Mugabe was awarded a knighthood by Britain in 1994, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. By contrast, after 15 white farmers were killed by ZANU-PF mobs in 2000 sanctions were imposed.
There is, he says, no clear line of succession from Mugabe. ZANU-PF, he maintains, is not a homogeneous body. It has rival factions. There would be a battle for the leadership. Coltart says he is aware of reports that the army, a notorious mainstay of the regime, is preparing to impose its chief, General Constantine Chiwenga, as leader, but says he believes this would be opposed by elements within ZANU-PF.
Coltart’s message is that Zimbabwe has come back from the brink, that it is no longer headed towards the sort of trainwreck that has been seen in places such as Somalia. Equally, the message is also that a nation that has been ravaged by decades of Mugabe’s misrule has got a long way to go before it returns to the prosperity it once enjoyed and that was the envy of Africa.
That Coltart, indefatigable campaigner for human rights and democracy, and Mugabe, the notorious tyrant, can work together is at least a promising sign in a country in which there has been so little hope for so long.
The CIS Acton lecture on religion and freedom is next Tuesday at NSW parliament, 5.45pm-7pm.