Newsday

27th August 2019

BY NIZBERT MOYO

Former director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), Matabeleland chapter who played a pivotal role in the documentation of the Gukurahundi massacres by CCJP in the 1980s, Joel Buhlalo Silonda has died.

He was 95. The veteran human rights activist and educationist died on Saturday at his home after battling with prostate cancer for a long time.

His second-born daughter, Ntombizodwa told Southern Eye late on Sunday that her father succumbed to prostate cancer on Saturday.

The family is still to decide on the funeral arrangements.

“He was a loving, passionate, a unifier and a brave man who could fight for justice even up to the bitter end. He worked in the education sector for 38 years,
where he started his education at St Patriarch’s Primary School in Bulawayo and later on became the headmaster of that school,” Ntombizodwa.

“He also went to Kutama Mission with the likes of former President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, George Silundika and others. Had an extended family that includes the late general Jevan Maseko, mentored other people such as former Bulawayo mayor Abel Siwela, Swazini Ndlovu and Archbishop Pius Ncube, who later on became his spiritual mentor.”

Ntombizodwa said Silonda fought tirelessly for justice which saw him becoming the CCJP director for the Matabeleland chapter in the 1980s.

“He worked closely with people like Nicholas Ndebele and David Coltart in coming up with the report: Breaking the Silence — a report which chronicled the
disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands from 1980 to 1987,’’ she added.

Silonda was also a musician who formed the Giypys Jive Band and became Mthwakazi musical director in the 1970s, competing with other groups such as Kings
Golden Choristers directed by Remington Mazabane as well as the Wings Over Jordan.

“We are also thankful for the good work he did, not only to the family, but to the general populace at large since he stood for justice locally and
internationally. He died while we were in the process of finalising a family tree,’’ she said.

Silonda is survived by five children with several great and great grandchildren. Mourners are gathered at his home number S35 Mzilikazi, Bulawayo.

The Standard

25th August 2019

In our previous edition we carried a Q&A with former Education minister David Coltart where he spoke about the culture of political violence in Zimbabwe and how it has also influenced the MDC.

Today we carry the second part of the discussion where Coltart (DC) was speaking in an exclusive interview with Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN) on the platform In Conversation with Trevor. Below are the excerpts from the interview.

TN: I would like to go back to your book and discuss what you call tyranny in Rhodesia and tyranny in Zanu PF and what that has done to our national psyche as a people; where our language is a language of insults and the way we deal with each other is disrespectful because violence is everywhere. I hear you saying that it is a false equivalence, but is there not something wrong with us, David?

DC: Well, that is the tragedy of war. You just have to look at the aftermaths of the Vietnam war in America and the amount of money that America spent on war veterans because of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

When I was minister of Education, I looked at how much money we were spending relating to different sectors for supplementary school fees.

I looked at the amount of money we were paying towards war veterans and I put forward a proposal to cut that a bit so that we could fund some kids who weren’t at school at all.

Joseph Chinotimba got wind of this and they threatened a demonstration against me and so I said I wanted to meet with the war veterans and Chinotimba.

Former deputy prime minister Arthur Mutambara organised the meeting and it was a fascinating meeting. I wrote about it in my book.

The first 15 minutes comprised of Chinotimba haranguing me and recounting my past as a former Rhodesian Selous Scout, which I never was. I eventually had to say, ‘Mr Chinotimba, I am the minister of Education now and I have got a relationship with (then) president Robert Mugabe and he understands that I am trying to act in the best interests — not of white children — but of black children who are out of school and that is what is motivating me.

He eventually relaxed and by the end of about an hour and a half meeting, we had a very good discussion, and since then we have had a very good relationship.
It illustrates to me the problem that we face in our nation.

Although you were not involved in the war, you had to suffer racial discrimination during our generation.

Black people suffered racial discrimination and white people suffered false notions of white superiority — and all of us had to suffer a war, which affected our national psyche.

It has given us a national dose of post-traumatic stress.

TN: How do we deal with that David, how do we get to normalcy because we are not a normal society anymore?

DC: The first step that you have to take with an illness is recognising it and not denying it. I think we need to recognise it in our country that we are still afflicted, and 40 years after independence many people are still fighting the war in one way or another. We need to recognise that it has resulted in some of the crazy policies that we have seen in the last 20 years.

TN: ….and crazy behaviour, David. Moving on to the January protests — I was shocked by two things: the level of violence from the military side and the loss of innocent lives. I was equally shocked by the violence from the protesters — the damage to private property, looting and that kind of stuff. I stopped and said: Who are we and what have we become?

DC: That is a very important point — and using this opportunity and coming back to the issue of dialogue, what Zanu PF and President Emmerson Mnangagwa need to understand is that they have a unique opportunity with the current MDC leadership.

The sentiment out in the streets is a very angry sentiment.

What we are trying to say is that let us stabilise the country — let us take us back into constitutionalism.

The danger is that if that voice is ignored — that this very angry sentiment that we saw in January gets out of hand — Zimbabwe is rather like the bush in October. The bush is dry, it is like a tinder box. You might want to burn a fire using matches. There is a strong wind that can take hundreds and thousands of hectares and burn them. That is the danger that we are in. At present, when you go into the high-density suburbs, which I am sure you do, and you speak to people, many people do not know how they will survive until the end of next week.

It takes responsible leadership right across the political divide to recognise that and to start genuine dialogue.

TN: Do you think you have partners for dialogue within Zanu PF? Are there moderates like you who are prepared to countenance what you are saying?

DC: Well, I have friends but I am not going to name them and compromise them. Yes, I have people that I interact with. This situation is analogous to South Africa in the early 90s. I am not equating Zanu PF rule to apartheid, but what I am saying is that you have two dominant political parties and two leaders that are finding it very difficult to interact with each other.

We need one tier dialogue, which is committed to constitutionalism, committed to dialogue and committed about the country and to take the nation forward and avoid conflagration.

TN: I like the way you describe what our society is like in terms of what it would be like with a matchstick to be responsible. In this kind of environment, how responsible is it to be calling out for street marches and protests, rather than pursuing as much as possible the issue of dialogue?

DC: What you need to understand — and you have seen it on social media in the last couple of months — that Nelson Chamisa has been attacked, and I have been attacked for being too moderate.

There is a groundswell of political opinion coming up saying that this is intolerable and we cannot survive like this. That same opinion is deeply sceptical of what Zanu PF is doing.

Zanu PF needs to understand that when we call for things like these — and we have been very deliberate to say that it is a march — it is not going to the streets one day.

We indicated the route that we wanted to take and encouraging leaders to be there saying that we want discipline, we want to cut down on agent provocateurs to come in.

TN: How confident are you that it is going to go according to plan?

DC: I am absolutely confident that if the MDC can be allowed to conduct a peaceful march….

We have demonstrated before and during the run-up to the elections, there were thousands of people in the streets. You referred to November 2017 — Zimbabweans naturally are peace-loving.

I am confident that if there are no agent provocateurs and the state authorities allow the march to take place along the route designated, there won’t be violence. But the danger is there are agent provocateurs coming from who knows where.

TN: But you also have the Job Sikhalas who have announced a number of times that his mandate — his mission — is to get rid of Mnangagwa even before 2023, those are worrying sentiments from somebody who is high up in the MDC leadership honestly.

DC: First of all, he did not say he wants to get rid of Mnangagwa. The word that he used was overthrow — and even if you look at the Criminal Code you will see that the crime is to overthrow unconstitutionally. One can be overthrown through constitutional means. Ironically, that is what Mnangagwa would say about former president Robert Mugabe, he would say that it was perfectly constitutional and to his rule pressure was put over him and he resigned. That is an overthrow, but it is an overthrow through constitutional means. I have no doubt that when Sikhala talks about this, he talks about it using constitutional means and non-violent means.

TN: But that does not come across, David.

DC: It does come across if you look at a wider context and you will understand Sikhala over the last 20 years as I do. I have been in Parliament with him. But one needs to look beyond that and recognise that Sikhala is reflecting a sentiment that is held at grassroots level. There are many people — not you and I — we have incomes and savings — but if you drive around there are desperate people out there.

That is what Zanu PF needs to understand — not to look so much at the messenger in Sikhala, but understand that actually in many respects, he is speaking on behalf of others.

TN: The MDC controls the majority of urban councils. Is it not a fair thing to say that shouldn’t MDC be doing a lot to ensure that they impress on the electorate by ensuring that those local authorities are properly run and governed to prove to the electorate that it should be happening? Is there something missing?

DC: In the run-up to my own personal election to the MDC, I said we cannot say to the electorate that we are capable of governing the country when we cannot govern the party well and the institutions that the party controls.

There is no doubt in my mind that the MDC has not run the councils as best as it could have. We have a lot of work to do and the recent shenanigans in Bulawayo are very damaging to the party.

TN: What is behind that?

DC: Well, I think part of it is complex, it is multifaceted, it is deeply-rooted and is brought about by corruption, which is also brought about by the wider corruption in our society.

There is an element of tribalism and personality.

Coming back to your question, yes, the MDC has a lot of work to improve delivery in councils. But you cannot look at how council is run in isolation. You have to judge how councils are run in the wider context of the country.

We know that Zanu PF has routinely interfered with the operations of councils.

In the run-up to some elections, we have had ministers of Local Government waiving rates which has seriously undermined the balance sheet of local councils.

So, yes the MDC is responsible, but it is not solely responsible.

TN: Let us go to your programme Reload, which you have just launched. How is it going to ameliorate some of the problems that the country is facing?

DC: Reload is how we stabilise the country and the focus of RELOAD is how we get to dialogue. We believe to get to genuine dialogue we need an independent mediator. We need respect for constitutionalism. we need a return to the rule of law. We need to agree on the process that will follow through to the next elections.

Looking at Zimbabwe with a completely objective perspective — the two political protagonists MDC and Zanu PF, what the MDC needs in the run-up to elections is constitutional compliance. We need food aid, not to be a factor.

We need all Zimbabweans to be registered, a genuinely independent electoral commission, we need a ZBC which is an impartial body and that is what the constitution says.

All those are needs, not just for the MDC, but all opposition parties.

On the other side of the spectrum is what Zanu PF needs.

Zanu PF has the control, but if there is no political and economic stability in the run-up to the elections, it will make its job of winning free and fair elections very difficult. That is the quid pro quo. That is what we need and that is what Reload talks about.

Let us return the country to constitutionalism, respect the rule of law, and then the international community — we hope — will respond to that. Zidera can go, balance of payments support can come in and we can stabilise the economy and we then move towards a new election with an entirely different political and economic climate.

TN: The economy is in a crisis. There are electricity and fuel shortages. What quick solutions will the MDC give if it were to come into power?

DC: You know as a businessman that the problems are so deeply-rooted. There is no silver bullet — no magic wand.

TN: Would you be able to tell that to MDC supporters that there is no quick solution?

DC: As I said during the congress week, I was interviewed and that interview was published when I said just that. But what the MDC would do is two things:

firstly, it has a better chance of restoring business confidence, and, secondly, it will be prepared to completely liberalise, for example, access to finance.
TN: Unpack those two.

DC: On business confidence, we saw Tendai Biti (former Finance minister MDC) restoring business confidence primarily in the business sector and this is objectively ascertained.

Bank deposits during his tenure dramatically increased.

Both businesses and people felt that they could put their money into bank balances rather than under their pillows. That was reversed soon after the elections.

That applies to commercial banks and the central bank. I recently read an article about the Federal Reserve in America and they said actually the most important element in the running of any central bank in the world comes down to one word: ‘trust’, and so you cannot restore trust when you say one thing one day and do another the next day. That applies to marriages and running banks where trust is fundamental.

Secondly, you have to be prepared to release foreign exchange to allow the market to determine how it wishes to spend foreign exchange.

There is a third element and that relates to corruption, which is now endemic in our society and it seems to be growing. You have to root it out deeply.

TN: And this is corruption that we find in MDC run city councils and all across our institutions?

DC: I am being candid with you today that we can see that there has been corruption in the running of some MDC councils but you cannot equate that with the corruption that we have seen in the past few weeks where we have seen US$98 million worth of houses alleged.

There is not even a single councillor in Zimbabwe.

They might have a house in Highlands but they do not have a house in Britain or Canada or Cape Town. It’s a false equivalence.

The deep-rooted corruption is what we see emerging in the past few weeks. We have to root out all corruption.

I come back to my profession of faith. A key element to the Christian faith is that all people have fallen short.

There is nothing such as a perfect politician or a perfect political party.

Anyone who says that they are perfect or that their political party is perfect is simply not telling the truth.

We need to have that national honesty to realise that just as violence which has now become a national disease, violence is also a national disease and those two diseases are affecting our country and everyone has to work to eradicate them.

TN: Let us now get into something that you have extensively written about and that is Gukurahundi. Are you happy with the way that the current government is dealing with this issue?

DC: I think to be fair you have to say that there is progress in that one could not speak about it at all during Mugabe’s rule but now people are speaking about it.

It comes back to genuine-ness. We need to see more of that from government; unfortunately it is going to take action.

When I and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace and the Legal Resources Foundation did a research for breaking the silence which was published in 1997 — we did five years of research and we interviewed over 2 000 victims during that period and it was very interesting for me on the what the common demands of the people were.

I was expecting, as a lawyer, that the victims would say that we want justice and people prosecuted, but that was not the dominant request. There were three dominant requests. The first was an acknowledgement that what had happened did happen by those responsible for it happening.

Secondly, they wanted an apology from those responsible for what had happened and thirdly, they wanted communal reparations.

You know that if you drive to Kezi or Tsholotsho or Gwanda you will travel on roads that are over 60 years old — they have not changed since the 1950s.
If you travel to Guruve, Bindura or Chipinge, you will travel on roads that were constructed since independence.

That is a hard developmental fact in our country. The roads are just a tip of the iceberg.

If you go to clinics and schools — there are less schools that teach ‘A Level chemistry and biology in the South West of the country than there are elsewhere in the country.

During the first 10 years — during Gukurahundi, there was underdevelopment of those regions.

That is what people called for. They want affirmative action.

It needs to be shown in dollars and cents and in the budget. Those are the three critical things that I think are going to heal and at present we do not have any of those demands. These are not my demands — in fact they were not even demands. They were the requests of the 2 000 victims.

TN: David what a fascinating conversation that we have had and you have been very candid. But I want to ask you — are you optimistic about where this country is going? Are you hopeful? If you are not, what is it that is going to make you hopeful and optimistic about this county?

DC: Trevor, I have a deep passion for this country. I love it to the depths of my bones — and because of that I still retain this faith in our nation.
I was in London in June and I said this is the country which should and can be the jewel of Africa.

It has every possible ingredient to become the best country in Africa, primarily because of our people.

We have the least racist people in the world in my own personal experience. We have highly educated people.

We have an incredible workforce — trustworthy, dedicated, hardworking people.

On top of that, we have this beautiful country, this amazing climate, amazing soils, amazing rains and this diverse resource base, tourist base, our position in Central Africa, our infrastructure — we have got everything, but we are missing only one ingredient, and its democracy, constitutionalism.

I believe that if we tackle our past, recognise the errors of our past and we genuinely respect our constitution and rule of law, we will build a sense of patriotism in this country and it is going to bloom.

So, the short answer to your question is that I still — for all our huge problems — still have faith that it will yet become the jewel of Africa.

Bloomberg

By Godfrey Marawanyika and Brian Latham

23rd August 2019

Zimbabwean police arrested a senior opposition official and will charge him for failing to stop a protest last week in the capital, Harare, his lawyer said. Amos Chibaya, the national organizing secretary of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested on Thursday and “will appear in court today,” lawyer Obey Shava said by phone Friday.

Police also arrested lawyer Doug Coltart during a protest Friday by teachers outside a government office, according to his father, David Coltart, a founding member of the MDC and who sits on its executive committee. Coltart was in attendance as the teachers’ legal representative and was beaten before being detained, he said by phone.

A magistrate’s court later ordered Coltart be remanded in custody until a bail hearing on Monday. The MDC last week called for nationwide protests over the deteriorating economic and political situation in the southern African country. Police, who banned the demonstrations, later used batons and teargas to disperse protesters who gathered in Harare. As many as 128 people were arrested. The renewed protests follow demonstrations earlier this year in which at least 12 people were killed in a violent crackdown by authorities. Calls to national police spokesman Paul Nyathi weren’t immediately answered.

Read more at: https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/zimbabwe-police-arrest-opposition-official-over-demonstrations
Copyright © BloombergQuint

Zimeye

23rd August 2019

By Farai Dziva

Overzealous police officers have bashed ARTUZ lawyer Douglas Coltart.

He sustained head injuries after the attack.

“My son Douglas Coltart has been located by his senior partner Beatrice Mtetwa at Harare Central police station.

He has been assaulted by the police as evidenced by these photographs taken by Beatrice Mtetwa.

As I mentioned in an earlier post he was representing ARTUZ in his capacity as a lawyer.

The Mnangagwa regime has sunk to new lows,”said Douglas’ father David Coltart.

Bulawayo 24 News

21st August 2019

Lawyer and MDC top politician David Coltart has taken a dig at President Emmerson Mnangagwa saying his use of brute force to crush dissent was a clear sign that his government is frightened by the new wave ever since the massive January protests, Mnangagwa has resorted to using massive force to threaten and crush dissent.

However, his stance has received widespread condemnation from the international community, including the United Nations, which described his actions as violations of human rights in the country.

Fearful authorities are intensifying their crackdown against the opposition, with police arresting a number of MDC officials – in addition to banning anti-government protests that were slated for Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and Mutare.

This comes as political analysts also warned that President Mnangagwa’s efforts to end decades of Zimbabwe’s international isolation are now in serious jeopardy following last Friday’s savage attacks by heavily-armed police on peaceful protesters.

The analysts pointed to the “mismatch” between the rising State-sponsored violence and abductions targeting government critics and the escalation in Mnangagwa’s re-engagement efforts with the United States, Britain and other major Western countries.

Police had rounded up several MDC leaders in Bulawayo, including the party’s national chairperson Tabitha Khumalo – on seemingly tenuous allegations of mobilising opposition supporters for protests in the City of Kings.

This came hardly 24 hours after the government had been widely condemned nationally and internationally for Friday’s brutal attacks by police on peaceful protesters.

All this notwithstanding, authorities once again moved to issue a prohibition order against the protests slated for Bulawayo.

The High Court in the country’s second city also stopped indefinitely the planned demo, following an urgent application which was filed by a section of the business community – which claimed that it feared the destruction of its properties.

MDC vice president Tendai Biti said the government clampdown on the party betrayed “fear and desperation” by authorities.

“We have received the ban of the demonstration. It is just a desperate manifestation of a desperate regime that is running out of options. You cannot take away rights that are codified in the Constitution … they are setting themselves up for an implosion,” he said.

Daily Mail

20th August 2019

By SOPHIE TANNO 

• Former auditor for Waltham Forest has been jailed for two years in Zimbabwe 
• He left Britain five years ago to become a chief in the Matabeleland region
• Felix Ndiweni, 53,  was convicted of malicious damage to property on Friday
• However, his supporters say his arrest was politically motivated 
• Ndiweni is vocal critic of Mnangagwa government, supports Western sanctions 

A former council worker who left the UK to become a tribal chief for the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe has been jailed in the country.

Felix Ndiweni, 53, was sentenced to two years behind bars with six months suspended for malicious damage to property on Friday. 

He used to work as an auditor for Waltham Forest and lived in Essex up until five years ago.  

His supporters say his trial was politically motivated and an attempt to silence Ndiweni, who has been openly critical of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government. 

He sided with white landowners whose property had become overrun by supporters of ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF).

Ndiweni’s lawyers have filed an appeal, according to local media. 

Felix Ndiweni, 53, (pictured) was sentenced to two years behind bars with six months suspended for malicious damage to property on Friday

Ndiweni was put on trial alongside 23 others for ordering the hedge of a woman accused of adultery to be destroyed. 

The villagers were each sentenced to 525 hours of community service, while the tribal chief received a jail term. 

Riot police intervened to break up protesters as his sentence was announced.  

Zimbabwean senator and human rights lawyer David Coltart tweeted on Friday: ‘My thoughts this evening are w @ChiefKhayisa Chief Ndiweni unjustly incarcerated today. 

‘I’ve no doubt that this prosecution & sentence of 18 months imprisonment is a direct result of his principled stance against injustice perpetrated by the brutal & corrupt Mnangagwa regime.’ 

His supporters say his trial was politically motivated and an attempt to silence Ndiweni, who has been openly critical of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s (pictured) government

Ndiweni was working as an auditor for Waltham Forest council and lived in Canvey Island, Essex until he quit the job five years ago and moved to Matabeleland where he became a chief. 

The jailed chief has vocally supported Western sanctions on Zimbabwe, and accused Mr Mugabe and Mr Mnangagwa of presiding over human rights abuses during the Gukurahundi massacre in the eighties, The Times reported. 

A day before his arrest, Ndiweni shared a video on Twitter urging people to participate in peaceful anti-government protests. 

Tribal chiefs are the immediate form of government for Zimbabweans who live on communal lands. The institution of traditional leadership continues to operate alongside modern state structures. 

Reuters

19th August 2019

 Soldiers and police deployed in large numbers in Zimbabwe’s second city Bulawayo on Monday to enforce a ban on an anti-government demonstration, as the country’s main opposition party sought to overturn that decision in court.

The street protest was the second called in four days by the Movement for Democratic Change’s (MDC), which accuses President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of repression and economic mismanagement.

Authorities had also banned Friday’s gathering in Harare, intended as the launch event of a nationwide protest movement. The MDC called it off, saying it aimed to avert bloodshed after police there rounded up its followers and dispersed them with batons and water cannon.

In a similar show of force in Bulawayo, an MDC heartland, authorities prohibited the march on Sunday and on Monday sent soldiers in trucks into the centre of the city and nearby townships, bolstering police who patrolled on foot and lorries, witnesses said.

Businesses remained open and residents circulated as normal in the city, however.

David Coltart, an MDC senator from Bulawayo and lawyer, called the ban “clearly unconstitutional and unjust”, and told Reuters the party had lodged a court appeal that city magistrates would hear on Monday morning.

The Standard

19th August 2019

Former Education minister David Coltart says Zimbabwe has a disturbing culture of violence that needs to be dealt with.

Coltart, who is the new treasurer-general for the main opposition MDC, said both the opposition and ruling Zanu-PF were to blame.

The veteran lawyer said the liberation war left a bitter legacy that continues to blight the country’s political landscape. Coltart (DC) was speaking in an exclusive interview with Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN) on the platform In Conversation with Trevor.

Below are excerpts from the interview.

TN: You are a person of faith, you are a Christian. Tell me, how has your faith informed your politics?

TN: Trevor, I only became a Christian at university in 1981. Coming to faith in 1981 had a profound impact on my outlook.

The one central tenet of the Christian faith is that we are all fallen people.

We have our weaknesses, but it also helped me understand some of my weaknesses.

It helped understand where other people are coming from, a major influence on my life and certainly on my approach to politics.

The Bible is an amazing guide for morality and is a good guide to how nations should run and certainly political parties should run.

TN: So, what are David Coltart’s weaknesses?

DC: You have to have my wife to spell all of those out, but, of course, they are many.

I tend to be bullish, a bull in a china shop sometimes. When I want to get things done, I become too determined and I don’t always listen to people around me.

TN: Is that a strength or weakness?

DC: One thing I say about everyone’s character is that often we find two sides of the same coin.

A person’s character’s strength is matched by the same weakness. So it can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness.

TN: Your book, The Struggle Continues, 50 Years of Tyranny, tells a journey of tyranny in Rhodesia, it tells a journey of tyranny in Zimbabwe, it also exposes violence in Zanu-PF and violence in MDC. First of all, how have sales been?

DC: The sales have been amazing. My publisher said that if we sold 2 000 copies, they would be happy.

That same publisher achieved sales of 10 000 with (South African President Cyril) Ramaphosa.

My book is sitting at around 7 000, which is a drop in the ocean if you are talking about book sales in America or Europe. But in the Southern Africa context, the publishers are very pleased.

TN: Looking at the politics of the violence in Zanu-PF, the violence in MDC, with that experience of research you did, what’s your takeaway, what are the lessons?

DC: Well, it’s much deeper than MDC and Zanu-PF.

The reason the book is sub-titled 50 Years of Tyranny is because sadly our country has seen decades of violence that goes back to the 1960s and the Rhodesian Front and Zanu-PF were both guilty for the war and for the violence that affected our country in the 1970s and tragically that has left a bitter legacy, which has continued in the 1980s and 1990s and even the MDC, which has committed itself to being a non-violent democratic party, has caught a cold by sitting too close on occasions to Zanu-PF, which I believe is a fundamentally violent party.

TN: You have been accused of having been a police officer or an informer. You deal with it in the book. I want you to use this opportunity to address this issue. What’s your position regarding that allegation?

DC: It’s not an allegation. It’s true. I wasn’t an informer. I was a regular member of the (British South African Police.) All young white men were conscripted. I was no different.

I went in as a 17-year-old, a few weeks before I turned 18.

At the time, my parents tried to persuade me not to, but I was part of my peer group and the peer group thought that was the right thing to do.

It’s something, which I look back on with regret. I wish that I had taken the wise counsel of my parents, but many of us did things which we regret when we were 17 or 18 year old.

I learnt a lot from it, the best thing I can say about it is the profound understanding that war is evil and propaganda can be used by old men to subvert young men for their own goals.

And so it has left me with a deep-rooted commitment to non-violence and I believe in Zimbabwe we simply have to draw the line on the sand on violence. We need to stop violence.

TN: The one thing that touched me a lot in the book is you relating the story of your family having to be moved from one place to the other, running away, escaping Zanu-PF operatives, CIO, like that. Given where we are right now, you continuing to be in politics, has the situation changed at all?

DC: Personally yes. My interaction with Zanu-PF goes back a long way.

I was first threatened with arrest way back in 1989 soon after the Unity Accord when I was representing ex-Zipra dissidents.

But, of course, in the early 2000s and up to 2012, I suffered four assassination attempts, two of which included my family.

Those were shocking, terrible things to go through. I think with the loss of office and the loss of elections in 2013, I did not constitute the same threat.

So that threat level lessened.

However, with my new office, we have tightened up security, we have seen recently the attempted abductions at a (Zimbabwe Council of Churches) event has been a warning to all of us that sadly it could happen again.

TN: But have you been personally threatened?

DC: I have not been personally threatened. I have not received any threats since the last attempt on my life in 2012 when I was actually a minister.

TN: You must be proud of what Doug Coltart is doing, following up dad and doing amazing work?

DC: I am very grateful for Doug and for my entire family.

We are blessed in a unique way in that four of our children are committed to Zimbabwe.

We have three of our children in Zimbabwe with our second son coming back to Zimbabwe next year.

They, like me, have a deep-rooted passion for the country, deep-rooted faith in the future of this country.

I often say unfortunately, my generation because of the war and white supremacy and because of discrimination and all the hurt that was brought by my generation, there is a limit to what my generation could do.

I say to my children, it’s your generation that is going to deliver the Zimbabwe that we all pray for.

TN: Congratulations on the MDC congress. Did it go according to expectations?

DC: I was amazed. I had been out of the mainstream MDC for quite some time, going back to 2005.

So I didn’t understand the mainstream MDC. The MDC congress at Gweru was heartwarming.

We had over 4 500 delegates and these were poor people generally.

They came in buses and not fancy cars and many of them slept at Mkoba Stadium. You know how cold Gweru can get.

I was born in Gweru, so I know.

The party was broke, so we couldn’t provide food, yet the resilience, the determination of those delegates was inspiring to me, quite encouraging.

TN: The other story is about a group of political leaders who had left the MDC in a big huff managed to find themselves under the same tent. How was that done? What was the overriding interest that brought these people back again after having fought so much in public?

DC: I think Morgan Tsvangirai started the process. Prior to his death, I had constructive interaction with Morgan Tsvangirai.

I think he realised after 2013 that unless he re-united the party, there won’t be any hope of winning an election.

So he definitely started the process, but, of course, he was very ill and didn’t have the energy to see the process through.

Nelson Chamisa’s strength is that immediately when he assumed office he reached out to people.

The day after he had been somewhat controversially elected as leader, he phoned and he said we have worked well together, David, I want to reunite the party.

He has been exceptionally pro-active in reaching out to people like Welshman Ncube and others.

So, he deserves a lot of credit for the reunification of the original MDC.

TN: You said his somewhat controversial election; do you want to expand on that?

DC: It was controversial to the extent that it was disputed. It was disputed by Thokozani Khupe. I don’t really blame Nelson Chamisa for that.

I think the problem was that the party had not amended the constitution, it was a mess.

I think it was exacerbated by the fact that Morgan was so ill and terminal and literally did not have the energy to sort out that mess and that’s what I mean by controversial.

I think that now it has been resolved to the extent that Thoko Khupe has had her own congress.

We now had our own congress where Nelson Chamisa was elected overwhelmingly. So, it’s now history.

TN: You are giving lots of credit to Chamisa for the role in bringing people together, what about those other politicians that went away, was it the Chamisa factor? Was it something that made them want to come back?

DC: We have been in the trenches for two decades, Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa.

We have been together in this struggle. The split in 2005 was a gift to Robert Mugabe. It was a gift to Zanu-PF.

We looked back and recognised that we really needed to work out our differences and that is a common understanding. Divided we will never be able to constitute a force against Zanu-PF.

TN: So there is now unity in the party?

DC: There is unity among those who participated in that congress. Obviously there are still divisions with some of our old colleagues such as Thokozani Khupe.

TN: Given the clearly immense sacrifices made by senior members of MDC to come together to bring a united MDC, could the same effort not be applied in bringing national dialogue in this country.

DC: What has happened with the MDC post-congress is that some people like myself, Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti have come back into the mainstream MDC.

If you look, for example, at Welshman Ncube’s history you will see that he is a moderate person.

He has always been tempered in his language and he is always committed to constitutionalism, he respects the rule of law and a peaceful process.

I stand for the same things.

So, what the public needs to understand is that there is a consensus that we are committed to stabilising the country and to take the country through meaningful dialogue.

What we believe though is that the playing field is uneven at present.

We think — and I think justifiably — there are two dominant political parties in the country and two dominant political leaders, Nelson Chamisa and Emmerson Mnangagwa, that is borne out by the election results.

That’s not to say other players can’t have a seat at the table, but in reality they are not the powerful political players, they don’t deliver the massive constituencies.

So the dialogue has to be primarily between those two parties and two leaders. But it cannot be a walk-down.
Both of the protagonists need a neutral interlocutor who can ensure that there is fair play. A neutral referee or umpire.

TN: So you believe there is scope for dialogue?
DC: There has to be scope, Trevor. When we look at the chaos the country is facing and more than that, the suffering of people.

So when poor people are battling to find bread, there is an obligation on political leaders to put aside their personal preferences and ambitions with the best interests of the nation.

TN: What will it take for us to get there?

DC: First of all, it takes genuineness. If leaders are involved in smoke and mirror games and are not genuinely interested in establishing the country, respecting the constitution, it’s very difficult for dialogue to take place.

Secondly, everyone has to be committed to constitutionalism, to respecting the constitution and implementing the constitution in letter and spirit.

There has to be mutual respect.

One of the things that is bogging the prospect of dialogue is the issue of legitimacy. Nelson Chamisa and the rest of us contest that election result.

TN: Even after the Constitutional Court made its ruling?

DC: As a lawyer, I have major problems regarding the process employed by the Constitutional Court. Obviously I am biased.

TN: How do we deal with the issue of legitimacy so that it is not a stumbling block to dialogue?

DC: I think both leaders have to park that issue. In other words, Emmerson Mnangagwa mustn’t be insisting that he be recognised .

Nelson Chamisa must say ok, I dispute that, but I am gonna park this issue for national interest so that we can get to the substantive issue.

Because if both stand on their respective positions, it’s gonna be difficult for dialogue to pursue.

The Standard

18th August 2019

MDC treasurer general David Coltart has said there is need for both President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the opposition party’s leader Nelson Chamisa to drop their hardline positions if genuine dialogue about the country’s political crisis is to take off.

Mnangagwa last week rejected Chamisa’s demands for a neutral mediator to help broker dialogue over last year’s disputed elections.

Coltart told Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube on the platform In Conversation with Trevor that the two should park their tough demands if there was to be any dialogue.

“I think both leaders have to park that issue. In other words, Emmerson Mnangagwa mustn’t be insisting that he be recognised,” he said.

“Nelson Chamisa must say okay, I dispute that, but I am going to park this issue for the national interest so that we can get to the substantive issue because if both stand on their respective positions, it’s going to be difficult for dialogue to be pursued.”

Coltart said the new MDC leadership was committed to helping Zimbabwe solve its problems.

“So what the public needs to understand is that there is a consensus that we are committed to stabilising the country and to take the country through meaningful dialogue,” he said. “What we believe though is that the playing field is uneven at present.

We think — and I think justifiably — there are two dominant political parties in the country and two dominant political leaders, Nelson Chamisa and Emmerson Mnangagwa, and this is borne out of the election results.”

He said the dialogue must be primarily between the MDC and Zanu FP based on the outcome of last year’s elections.

“That’s not to say other players can’t have a seat at the table, but in reality they are not the powerful political players, they don’t deliver the massive constituencies,” he said.

“So the dialogue has to be primarily between those two parties and two leaders.

“But it cannot be a walk-down. Both of the protagonists need a neutral interlocutor who can ensure that there is fair play. A neutral referee or umpire.”

Former South African presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were the mediators when Zanu PF and MDC agreed to form an inclusive government in 2009 following another disputed election.

Xinhua

16th August 2019

Traffic was thin in the Harare Central Business District as motorists and other members of the public remained cautious of planned demonstrations led by the opposition MDC.

Businesses opened while the police maintained a heavy presence in strategic areas from where they could easily deploy into the streets in case violence erupted.

The police also on Thursday night issued a prohibition order against the demonstrations and warned members of the public that they would be arrested if they participated.

Earlier during the day, police spokesperson Paul Nyati said investigations had shown that the demonstrations would not be peaceful and alleged that some people had transported some assault items into town and handed them over to homeless children living in the streets.

MDC treasurer-general David Coltart said they had approached the courts over the prohibition order.

“Our #MDC legal team is at the High Court for the hearing of our urgent application before Justice Musakwa. The team is waiting to get into chambers to argue that the police prohibition of today’s march is illegal and unconstitutional,” he twitted.

Reports from some residential areas also said many people opted not to report for work fearing possible violence.

Although calm prevailed in the morning, fears remained that the situation could deteriorate as the day progressed, with the MDC saying on Twitter that some of its members were geared up for the demonstrations.

The opposition wants to demonstrate against the deteriorating economy and other issues that they accuse the government of not handling properly.