Coltart: 'Tsvangirai failed to deal with MDC violence'

Coltart: 'Tsvangirai failed to deal with MDC violence'

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By Lebo Nkatazo

BULAWAYO South MP David Coltart has implicitly blamed Morgan Tsvangirai for the split that has ripped apart Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

Coltart has made two attempts to facilitate what he calls an "amicable divorce" between two feuding factions of the MDC -- one led by former NASA scientist Arthur Mutambara and the other by Tsvangirai, the MDC's founding leader.

While Mutambara's group has indicated a willingness to talk with the other group about sharing the party's properties and use of the party name, Coltart recently admitted he had been ignored by Tsvangirai's camp.

In a final plea sent to Tsvangirai on April 8 asking him to agree to the "amicable split" negotiations, Coltart said: "I would be grateful to hear from you within the next few days. If I have not heard from you by then, I shall assume that you do not want to take up my offer."

It appears the MDC's former legal secretary has had it, and puts the blame for the split on Tsvangirai's failure to deal with violence directed at party officials by youths who were suspended but later hired by Tsvangirai.

In an interview with South Africa's SA FM radio station, Coltart said: ''If I were Mr Tsvangirai, I would have averted the split by dealing decisively with the violence.''

The dramatic split in the MDC -- the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 26-year rule -- was dramatised by a fall-out over the party's policy on election participation just before the senate elections in November last year.

Tsvangirai favoured a boycott of the elections, but some of his most senior colleagues, including his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, voted for participation. After the vote of the party's national council went against him, Tsvangirai overruled it prompting accusations of being a dictator by his colleagues.

In the radio interview picked up by Sunday papers, Coltart cited several incidents of brutal attacks orchestrated by party youths against fellow party members, presumably at the behest of their feuding masters within the MDC before the split.

In an astonishing revelation, Coltart said that in 2004 rowdy party youths attacked officials at the MDC's then-headquarters at Harvest House. He said the violent youths tried to throw the officials down the 6th floor windows of the Harare building.

In May 2005, there were ''serious'' incidents of violence among party youths, he added.

''There've been other incidents of violence...there's even an unconcluded commission of inquiry into the violence,'' said Coltart.

He pointed out that the violent attacks by the MDC youths against fellow party members and officials occurred well before the Senatorial elections became an issue.

Hard-pressed to maintain his aura of neutrality, Coltart claimed that ''the split does not necessarily weaken the fight against the Zanu PF regime''.

He said the faction led by Professor Arthur Mutambara believes that the goverment should be confronted through ''all options'', including through the courts and Parliament.

On the other hand, the faction led by Tsvangirai, he said, has lost faith in the electoral process and strongly believes that mass action is now the only way of getting to power.

Asked by a caller how he expects the international community to view the two MDC factions as serious political organisations, Coltart skirted the issue, saying what really matters is the fight against ''the regime''.

He said the two factions could, in fact, be complementary, but he would not explain why he is mediating between the two factions if he really believes there are synergies to be reaped from the split.

Mr Coltart said President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and United Nations Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan should intervene to resolve ''a grave humanitarian crisis'' in Zimbabwe.
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