11 May 2025 | TAKUDZWA DHAMBU | Dailynews
ZIMBABWEANS need to ditch their fixation with personality politics and also promote discourse that addresses critical national issues to move the country forward.
So says former Cabinet minister and opposition stalwart, David Coltart, who adds that it is crucial that all politicians fight for national development despite their political differences.
Speaking on Thursday night on leading independent national television station 3Ktv’s popular current affairs programme, Vantage, Coltart also strongly felt that opposition leaders had badly failed the country and their support base in recent years.
Vantage, which offers diverse perspectives on a wide range of engaging topics that include politics, corruption, economics and women’s issues is broadcast on the fast-growing station every Thursday at 8:30pm.
“I think that a lot of the criticism directed at the opposition is justified. I am also very disappointed about this, having been involved in the formation of the MDC back in September 1999.
“Many of our founding principles have been ignored and I think the opposition, and I include all of us, have been a great disappointment to the people of Zimbabwe.
“We need an opposition which is committed to those founding principles of establishing a democratic and orderly country.
“The chaos within the opposition betrays all of that and is greatly disappointing,” Coltart told 3Ktv.
The now mayor of Bulawayo added that the crisis within the opposition went beyond egos of rival leaders.
“It goes much deeper than that. Unfortunately, this is a poisoned political society, and if you look at societies like this throughout the world, this is what happens.
“People who start out committed to democratic ideals get poisoned by the wider political environment. It’s not an excuse, but it’s just a consequence of that.
“This is all compounded by us focusing far too much on personalities — and I am not targeting any individual here,” Coltart further told 3Ktv.
“My view is that the opposition will only become credible again when it does two key things. Firstly, it must put its affairs in order and act in accordance with democratic principles. You need a democratic constitution which governs a democratic party. That is obvious.
“The second thing is, we need to shift our discourse away from focusing on individuals to focusing on the policies that our country needs to take it forward.
“We spend so much time discussing which faction, which personality leads which faction, and we forget to focus on what is our policy on land in 2025? “What is our fiscal policy? What is our monetary policy? What should our foreign policy be? These are the issues that enable people to coalesce and to agree on the way forward,” Coltart, a former Cabinet minister, said further.
“The moment you focus on individuals and who supports which individuals is the moment you become divided and fragmented, as is the case now.
“I think the time has come for us to focus on what I have just said — these two things.
“How should any democratic party, any party which states that its intention is to create a democratic order in Zimbabwe, how should that party be governed?
“Ignoring Zanu PF, ignoring what is going on in the nation, how do you govern that party to make sure that that party is run efficiently and in accordance with democratic principles? That is the number one issue,” Coltart added.
“Number two is, we need to start a debate and a discussion regarding the policies the country needs. Now, you are not always going to agree, for example, on economic policy.
“This is because within the spectrum of opposition, you have got different ideological beliefs from left to right, from conservative to liberal — and those people are not going to agree.
“But, there are certain fundamentals, for example, around the Constitution of the country that should be respected by all,” Coltart also said.
“Do we agree that the courts need to be independent?Do we agree, for example, that education should be a budgetary priority in real terms — not in theoretical terms?” Coltart further told 3Ktv.
“Once you have reached agreement regarding the way parties are to be run and the fundamental policies that should be implemented, then hopefully leaders who endorse those two principles will emerge.
“That is the correct procedure. It is wrong to start with the individuals. You have got to start with the basic principles and then see who subscribes to those principles. That is the way forward, in my view,” he stressed further.
Coltart also said he was hoping for a positive opposition change in the 2028 national elections.
“That is my prayer. Zimbabwe is not short of highly intelligent people. Zimbabwe is not short of people who believe in the Constitution, who are opposed to corruption and who are opposed to the abuse of power.
“And so, it’s not that we have got a shortage of those people. We just have to find each other, and we need to look beyond the current structures — because I have absolutely no doubt that right across the political divide, there are people who believe in those basic principles.
“But we have got to find each other and coalesce around that. It is critical that this happens before 2028. The country simply can’t continue as it is today. We will utterly destroy our country if we continue along this trajectory,” Coltart told 3Ktv.
“So, I am saying once again … We need to come back to principles and then see who subscribes to those principles. It may very well be that there are people in Zanu PF, and I suspect there are, who agree with those principles that I have just been talking about.
“And if they do, then you get people to coalesce around those principles. That is the way forward. Not to start with the leaders,” Coltart underlined repeatedly.
He also told 3Ktv that it would be a travesty of justice if the Constitution were to be amended to extend the presidential term and that of the National Assembly.
“I was heavily involved in the constitutional process, first as one of the co-chairs of COPAC (the Constitution Parliamentary Select Committee), and then thereafter on what was basically the deadlock-breaking committee which comprised senior lawyers from all the parties in the GNU which included Patrick Chinamasa, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, myself, and others.
“One of the issues was that of presidential terms. That never had to come to the constitutional deadlock-breaking committee because there was such a broad consensus amongst all the political parties and in particular, amongst people at grassroots level.
“Right across the country, people from all political persuasions, from all regions, from all ethnic groups, from each gender, agreed that we wanted constitutional limits placed on presidential terms.
“In other words, it wasn’t ever a huge debate. And I don’t believe that anything has changed in the country,” Coltart told 3Ktv.
“This is an issue which is part of the soul of this country as revealed in the 2013 election — that the vast majority of Zimbabweans do not want presidents to have extended terms of office.
“For that reason alone, this proposal is unacceptable. And I strongly, with every breath I have, oppose it,” he added.