SW Radio Africa
The MDC legal expert David Coltart has spoken out over the controversial senate election that has divided the opposition party. He says positions have become entrenched over this issue and hoped that things can be restored to normal, but added it would be difficult given the enormous amount of damage done to relationships.
Leaders from both camps have over the weeks embarked on a war of words which degenerated into personal verbal attacks. Coltart, who said there are strong arguments from both sides, is saddened that people within the MDC, civil society and media have adopted absolutist positions as if there is only one side to the argument. He lamented the fundamental lack of tolerance of genuine views expressed by people with opposing views. The opposition official believes this is an indictment, not just against the MDC but against pro-democracy groups in Zimbabwe.
Coltart who is the MDC Secretary for Justice asked, “Are we as a party, as members of civil society, as members of the media genuinely committed to democracy? If we are genuinely committed to democracy we would listen to views of other people. We would consider them…. Even if we disagreed with them we would acknowledge their rights to have these views and that hasn’t happened.”
Both sides have made accusations against each other and labelled each other traitors and sell-outs. Coltart said this is unacceptable saying this has been a test that all of us have failed and hoped that as a nation we all take stock and think about these unrestrained comments that have been made by both sides. He said this has been damaging to all parties who are trying to get rid of this brutal regime.
When asked what his position over the participation in the senate election is, he said personally he does not want to be in a senate as it is costly for the nation but he is persuaded by those who believe strategically there is no choice.
He said he has been accused of sitting on the fence, but added: “This is a no win situation. If we are not in this election we are going to lose in certain respects and if we participate we are going to lose…these senate elections at the end of the day are irrelevant. The day after senate elections the ZANU PF regime is still going to deal with 400% inflation, 5 million Zimbabweans with insufficient food, 1.5 million Zimbabweans who are HIV positive and none of these issues are going to be addressed… to the extent that all this hullabaloo about the senate is misplaced.”