Coltart: 'I would rather lose my seat than compromise principles'

Coltart: 'I would rather lose my seat than compromise principles'

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By Staff Reporter

BULAWAYO South MP David Coltart has ended weeks of speculation about his political future by joining a faction of Zimbabwe's opposition MDC led by rocket scientist, Arthur Mutambara.

In a statement released Thursday, a Thomas Jefferson-quoting Coltart said it was "impossible"to join the other faction led by the MDC's founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Coltart said: "I would rather lose my seat in Parliament than compromise certain principles that are fundamental to my belief system.

"For the last seven months I have been in a state of limbo and I believe it is imperative that I resume my work in this collective struggle to bring freedom and democracy to Zimbabwe.

"I believe that I will be more effective working in conjunction with colleagues who share a similar vision for a new Zimbabwe and who are committed to using the same means as I am to reach that goal."

Coltart tried for several months to bring the MDC's two warring factions together but received little support, particularly from Tsvangirai's group which viewed him with suspicion.

The MDC split into two groups in November last year, a development dramatised by a messy fall-out over the party's policy on participating in elections for a newly established senate.

Coltart -- a former legal secretary for the united MDC -- said he felt he had joined a "pro-democracy" MDC.

Said Coltart: "I find myself in an invidious position in that I would far rather remain in a united MDC than join any faction, but that clearly is not possible now.

"With this in mind during the last few weeks I have met with leaders of what I perceive to be the pro-democracy faction of the MDC and in particular with Arthur Mutambara. I have been encouraged by these discussions."

Key to Coltart joining the Mutambara faction were assurances that their faction was committed to stamping out violence within the party's ranks and establishing a Truth Commission into human rights abuses in Zimbabwe since 1965, he said.

Coltart rejected suggestions that he was "fence sitting" and waiting to see "which way the wind was blowing", with regards to the popularity contest between Mutambara and Tsvangirai.

He said the defeat of the Mutambara faction in a recent by-election in the poor township of Budiriro had not changed his conviction that Mutambara's group represented a democratic opposition.

Emphasising his point, Coltart quoted from an 1801 statement by philosopher Thomas Jefferson in which he said: "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

Brian Raftopoulos, a former Tsvangirai adviser recently documented shocking scenes of violence within the MDC, allegedly perpetrated by Tsvangirai's shock troops against senior party officials.

In another recent column, Coltart claimed that Tsvangirai's youthful supporters had attempted to kill the MDC's security chief at the party's headquarters in Harare.

Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist, has also been accused of rehiring officials suspended by the party's disciplinary committee for engaging in acts of violence against party officials.

Tsvangirai's group has not directly responded to the violence allegations but insists that Mutambara's faction is a break-away group held together by ethnicity.

Analysts warn that the MDC is at its weakest and risks "postponing the revolution" through its internal squabbles.
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