NOTE: Verbatim copy of a letter written to Senator Coltart and delivered to his offices on Thursday 4th November 2010
ZIMBABWE LIBERATION WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION
Harare Province
Cnr Jason Moyo/ 4th Street
Harare                                                            mobile 071 2 359 548
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04 November 2010
DAVID COLTART
(Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture)
AmbassadorHouse
Kwame Nkrumh Avenue
HARARE
RE: YOUR COMMENTS IN THE NEWSDAY- 1NOVEMBER 2010 ISSUE:- OUTRAGEOUS AND AN INSULT
Minister Coltart, you will never cease to amaze!!
As the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association Harare Chapter we read with shock and horror your utterances and comments in the NewsDay Monday 1 November 2010 issue under the headline; ‘It was genocide- Coltart’ which can be best interpreted as despicable attack on War Veterans and all Zimbabweans. In no uncertain terms, your utterances are unacceptable and an insult in our country’s liberation struggle, national rconciliation and the legacy of national independence.
It is quite preposterous in the extreme for you to preach about human rights violations and post independence disturbances putting into cognizant your background as a former member of the brutal and murderous Rhodesian Selous Scouts whose indisputable agenda was to entrench the ideology of white supremacy over blacks by torturing, maiming and killing of freedom fighters. Isn’t it known by everyone that the Rhodesian Selous Scouts and the Rhodesian Front committed some massacres and atrocities in and outside the country whose combined toll is yet to be fully appreciated? Who doesn’t know that as an active member of the Selous Scout, you were responsible for the ruthless killing of freedom fighters and innocent Zimbabwean refugees in camps in Mozambique and Zambia? We would like to merely remind you that the Rhodesian Selous Scouts and Rhodesian Infantry were terrorising and subjugating blacks in this country in the vein hope of defeating the liberation war. Wasn’t all this genocide?
By virtue of your unacceptable background 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. What human rights and abuse of power are you talking about? As one of the oppressing white minority and a former Rhodie, you benefited under the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s reconciliation policy. Isn’t this absurd? Why are you poking your nose in matters that concern blacks? Remember there is an adage which says; If an owl live together with chickens, it does not mean that it is also a chicken. It is quite amazing to hear you talk of setting up a truth, justice and reconciliation process. You cannot tell that nonsense to War Veterans, who surely know better and to scores of Zimbabweans who suffered from untold torture and killing from 1890 to 1980 melted against them by your forefathers and other Rhodies. Mr. Coltart, even fools knows very well that your hands are dripping with blood of many freedom fighters. Let it be known to you that because of your pre-independence wicked atrocities ad massacres, you can never be a champion of democracy and human rights. Why are you silent on the atrocities and massacres you committed during the pre-independence war? What happened to the likes of Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi, Edison Sithole, Jason Moyo, Herbert Chiptepo and Alfred Mangena just to mention a few?
Mr. Coltart, your utterances have automatically invited War Veterans to your office and we are therefore coming to your office for explanations. Indeed, you owe us and all Zimbabweans an apology. In a thousand years, we will never forget your roll in the Rhodesian Selous Scout and by invoking old memories, we cannot continue folding our hands and watch former Rhodies willingly insulting us. 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 in the likes of Bennet and yourself are not even apologetic of their unacceptable background. Shame on you Coltart!! We have had enough of your nonsense and we can longer brook in any more.
In view of the foregoing, we want an apology from you and withdraw your statements within seven days or else you should resign from your post as the Minister of Education, Arts, Sports and Culture. Suffice to say you are not even the right incumbent for the post as you are not even conversant with our culture as blacks. What we know for certain is that you are conversant with Western culture amongst them being homosexuality which, your colleagues in the West, are advocating to be included in our Constitution, but happily, the people of Zimbabwe are out rightly denying.
If by any chance, you were misquoted by the press, let us know in writing because we are really upset with your unapologetic behaviour, which we, as War Veterans, can not just allow to slither into the back of our minds unchallenged.
FOR AND ONBEHALF OF THE ZIMBABWE NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION HARARE PROVINCE.
…………………………………..
CDE MPOFU
(PROVINCIAL CHAIRMAN)
…………………………………
(SECRETARY GENERAL)
………………………………
(CDE J. CHINOTIMBA)
Honorouble Minister, This episode succintly portrays the problems with the unity government and its foundation, the GPA. It is lop-sided, and even in its lop-sidedness, it is being dishonoured in letter and spirit, and there is nothing either MDC formation can do about it. I am sure it is not through want of trying on the MDCs’ (plural) part, but their effors, divided as they are, still look lame and are now having no useful effect on the governing discourse, as this episode well shows. I actually want to write in support of you: you are a good man who has traversed the globe, seeking to sell the unity government to a sceptical world and pointing out the positives of the situation to every audience which would listen. But it was never going to be reciprocated by the other side so long as ZANU-PF’s belligerence remained intact. But leaving aside ZANU-PF for the moment, where are the other players on your side? I may have missed it, but I have not seen any comments from your principal, Hon. Mutambara; your MDC ministerial colleagues, nor anyone else from the wider MDC constituency to condemn this outrageous threat against your person and against your right, as a minister and in your own capacity, to make pertinent observations which are widely shared? Am I wrong in surmising that your own formation is more focused on fighting MDC-T than combating this political boorishness in high places?
It is a shame that a committed statesman and one of the hardest working cabinet ministers – yourself – is subjected to such slander, and is left by his progressive peers (who collectively dominate parliament) to deal with this alone. Apparently any white person in Zimbabwe can be said, in their personal capacity and as a matter of fact, to be responsible for the bombings in Nyadzonia and elsewhere by Rhodesian security forces, never mind the fact that the Rhodesian Army was, by the late 1970s, a multi-racial entity, and it is not inconceivable that some of your latter-day enemies or their relatives were directly involved in the operations you are erroneously associated with.
Incidentally, you make no mention of recourse to legal action to address the slurs directed at you in the war veterans’ letter, and which are being repeated across several media as I write. That is your own prerogative of course, but I can’t help feeling, sir, that this is another indication that you, and both MDC formations, are swimming against the tide, and running out of steam in the process.
I will of course be delighted were I to be proved wrong.