Coltart condemns UDI and explains days in the police force

The New Examiner

14 May 2016

The former Minister of Education and Bulawayo South senator, David Coltart, addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club on Thursday said the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith’s regime in 1965 was “illegal and oppressive” and cannot be defended.

He also opened up about his days in the Rhodesian police force.
“Although some whites might want to defend it,” he said. “In the 1950s, the country under Garfield Todd was under a more liberal democracy. If he had continued in the helm, we could have avoided war. I don’t describe Todd’s rule as tyranny. He was opening up education and other opportunities to black Africans. Once he was thrown out, we started on a downward spiral. My view is that the Rhodesian Front (RF) rule from November 1965, was illegal and oppressive. I have been attacked by some whites for saying this.

“The great potential of our nation has been subverted by extremists in both sides of our society. Had the Todds, Joshua Nkomos, Eddison Zvobgos, Edward Ndlovus had the upper hand; we would not be in the troubles that we are in today. The extremists in Rhodesia, gambled the future of this country in a war they knew they could not win; yet they were prepared to fight that war and put thousands of lives – both white and black – at risk.”

Coltart recently published a book, “Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe”, which has provoked mixed reactions across the country.

The former Minister of Education said, although, he was in the police force for nearly two years, he never shot a gun at anyone.

“I wasn’t in the army but was in the police,” he said. “I went into the police because I was interested in law. I was in the police force for just over two years and spent that time in Kezi. The vast majority of my time was spent as a regular police officer in an area where there was little war taking place at the time. I challenge anyone to go and check the police records. I was very lucky that I was never shot at, that I never had to fire any gun in anger.”

Coltart said he joined the police force against the advice of his father and the counsel of Irish brothers at the Christian Brothers’ College (CBC) in Bulawayo because of Rhodesian propaganda.

“The propaganda of the RF was a big influence,” he said. “They portrayed the RF as defending Christianity against Communist terrorists coming out to wipe out whites and Christianity. It was the pervasive combination of propaganda and peer pressure. It was ironically when I left home, left school and came face to face with the reality of war that I realised how things didn’t tally (with the propaganda). I was 17 when I went into the police force, and had just turned 20 when I left. At independence, I was just 22.”