Category Archives: Articles
Much of our current euphoria in Zimbabwe is misplaced – statement by Senator David Coltart
Daily Maverick 19th November 2017 Opinion by David Coltart The message to the Zimbabwe Defence Force must now be – thank you for cleaning up the mess you created but you must now return to your barracks as soon as possible and never again get involved in the electoral process. As I have reflected about […]
“An opportunity for Zimbabwe to embrace democracy” – op ed by David Coltart
The Telegraph 17th November 2017 Op ed by David Coltart For the last eighteen months I have been warning of a gathering perfect storm in Zimbabwe – the unique convergence of several factors including Robert Mugabe’s frailty, his inability to hold his own party together, disunity in the opposition, a collapsing economy, a region distracted […]
Zimbabwe faces a grave constitutional crisis – op ed by David Coltart
Daily Maverick 16th November 2017 By David Coltart Zimbabwe faces a grave constitutional crisis. For all the ambiguity in General Constantine Chiwenga’s statement this week it challenges President Robert Mugabe either to turn his back on his wife and other members of the G40 faction or to face the wrath of the military. In reality […]
Zimbabwe’s Education Minister Dokora on new curriculum
Newsday Monday 16th October 2017 BY VANESSA GONYE PRIMARY and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora has courted controversy since 2013 when he took over from David Coltart, introducing a raft of changes within a short space of time much to the chagrin of parents and pupils, who felt he was on a mission to take […]
How much longer the night? The remorseless tyranny of Robert Mugabe
Times Literary Supplement By Martin Meredith 22 September 2017 A review of two books by Stuart Doran, “Kingdom, Power and Glory” and David Coltart “The Struggle Continues” In a pastoral letter sent to congregations throughout Zimbabwe ten years ago, a group of Catholic bishops issued a scathing indictment of Robert Mugabe’s rule. The plight of […]
Jacket Notes: Stuart Doran on Kingdom, power, glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the quest for supremacy, 1960-1987
Sunday Times 29th August 2017 Kingdom, power, glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the quest for supremacy, 1960-1987 (Sithata Media) by Dr Stuart Doran The publishing of this book, centred on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s orchestration of the Gukurahundi massacres, is the end of a long process. At one level, it began in 2003 when I discovered […]
Trump is delighting dictators everywhere
Washington Post 21st August 2017 By Michael Gerson We are seeing the sad effects of President Trump’s renunciation of moral leadership on American politics and culture — the waning of civility, idealism and respect, and the waxing of contempt, prejudice and racial division. But how is a similar moral abdication — summarized as the doctrine […]
Zimbabwe’s untold history: Time luminaries told their stories
Newsday Candour with Nqaba Matshazi 17th August 2017 In 2007, when the country’s political temperatures were rising ahead of a Zanu PF congress and the 2008 elections, I asked now Zapu leader, Dumiso Dabengwa whether he had thought of writing a book, he promised that he was working on something. Dabengwa was clearly on his […]
Mnangagwa’s un-statesman-like language cause for concern
Newsday 4 May 2017 Candour: an opinion piece by NQABA MATSHAZI Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is widely regarded as the person to succeed President Robert Mugabe in Zanu PF and maybe the country as well. He is seen as a reformer, a person who has an ear to business and who knows what needs to be […]
The Matabeleland Massacres: Britain’s wilful blindness
The International History Review By Hazel Cameron 10 April 2017 ABSTRACT This article explores an episode of post-colonial state violence in the newly independent Zimbabwe, namely state-sanctioned atrocities by the army unit known as Fifth Brigade, perpetrated against the Ndebele of Matabeleland and Midlands region. This episode of political and ethnic violence that occurred between […]