peter
Vusumuzi Dube, Zimpapers Elections Desk
FORMER Education Minister and Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate for Ward Four in Bulawayo, Mr David Coltart, has said he is ready to become the city’s next mayor if he manages to win the upcoming harmonised elections and if his fellow councillors vote for him in council chambers.
Mr Coltart opted to participate in the local authority elections saying he had previously considered retiring from politics to concentrate on his law firm and family. The CCC is backing him to be the city’s mayor. However, Mr Coltart has in the past avoided committing himself to the position saying he was concentrating on winning the ward election first. In a wide-ranging interview last Thursday, Mr Coltart said if given the opportunity to become mayor he would gladly accept it as a means of giving back to the community.
“To be frank I view it as a poisoned chalice because I think there are high expectations and it’s very difficult to meet those expectations from the public. So I’m under no illusion that this is going to be an easy task but, in all respects, it will be an even harder job than when I took over as Minister of Education.
“It’s also a long road, first of all you can’t count your chickens before they hatch, you have to win your ward first then the CCC has to win the election citywide and then you’ve got to secure support among the colleagues, so if we go through that process and if my party still wants me to be, then yes I will take that and give it a bash,” said Mr Coltart.
Questioned on his decision to opt for the local authority while he was previously in Senate and whether he did not view this as a downgrade, Mr Coltart said for him it was more of giving back to the community, revealing that at one point he considered retiring from politics.
“So, two things when I was asked what position I wanted to stand for within the CCC. I said I’ve been out of politics and out of government for 10 years, I’m now 65, I’ve got seven grandchildren, my law firm needs a lot of attention, it had been neglected by me for 15 years, it’s taken a lot to stabilise this law firm.
“So I said I am happy to be associated with the party but put me on the senatorial list and you can put me at number six of which CCC even in the best circumstances won’t get a 100 percent of the votes, I won’t be elected but I will have associated. But people within the party and also from outside of the party, people from other political parties approached me and said no you can’t just retire, come in, stand as a councillor with a view to playing a role to the city which you love.
“It was in that context that I then decided to stand as a councillor, so I don’t see it as downgrading. I see it as an opportunity to try and give back to a city that I love. I’ve lived here since 1961 and I have very close ties with the city. The Stanbic Bank building next to Joshua Nkomo statue was designed by my father, I started the Bulawayo Legal Project Centre, I was the one that got Khumalo Hockey Stadium and the White City Stadium rehabilitated as Minister of Education and Sport.
“I was the one that persuaded the founders of Cure Children’s Hospital to bring it to Bulawayo. I was the one that put forward the first idea to set up Petra College and was a trustee from 1986 to 2021, so the point I’m making is that my heart has always been in Bulawayo. I love Zimbabwe but this is where my family is, three of our four children are here, five of my seven grandchildren are here, so I want to see this city achieve its potential,” added Mr Coltart.
On his vision for the city, if elected into office, Mr Coltart bemoaned the current state of Bulawayo under CCC councillors saying there was a need to ensure the city goes back to its former glory.
“Bulawayo used to be the industrial capital of Zimbabwe, in fact, it used to be the best city if you look at infrastructure, the way it was laid out, its buildings, the High Court, the City Hall, buildings like Tredgold, the way the suburbs were set out, in particular the high-density suburbs, in the 1950s and 1960s, those were viewed as cutting edge, this was the greatest city in Africa and that is my vision, we need to restore that.
“In the past 40 years it has slowly run down, it is no longer an industrial hub, many businesses that had their headquarters here have moved to Harare, the population has dwindled, it is a city that is now filthy, it is marked by litter and potholes and we need to reverse that,” said Mr Coltart. He further noted that over the years the city had lost some of its revenue streams which ln turn was contributing to the crisis the local authority was faced with.
“We have to be realistic, we need to understand that this is no easy task, even in the easiest political circumstances but instead it is made even more difficult by the fact that much of the power the city council used to exercise has been transferred to central government.
If I give you two examples of that, firstly regarding water, council used to control its own dams and that power has been shifted to Harare through Zinwa, secondly all car licences used to be paid and receipted here and that moved to Harare and that deprives the city council of two areas of funding. So, we have to reverse that, we need to clean up the city, that is clean up in terms of litter, clean up in terms of corruption within the running of the city and generally to make it more efficient. And once we have stabilised the city, that’s when we can start to attract investment and rebuild this city,” he added.
Mr Coltart, who recently attracted the ire of the current Mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, when he insinuated that there was an endemic corruption within the local authority, also touched on the issue saying while he had not singled out the mayor, his comments were of someone speaking from the outside.
“For a start, I didn’t accuse the mayor as an individual of corruption and you know corruption is sometimes defined as a sausage, it’s hard to find but easy to smell and it seems to me from an outsider looking in, that some of the contracts that have been entered into do not appear to be in the best interest of citizens, we will only know that, I will only know that if I am elected to office.
“My intention is to use my skills as a lawyer of 40 years’ experience, my experience as Minister of Education where I had to tackle corruption head on to review those contracts to see whether they are lawfully entered into, were the proper tender procedures followed, are they in the best interests of the citizens and if not then we need to act to cancel those contracts and to show that we have contracts that are entered into for the best interest of the citizens,” he said.
Pushed to name some of the contracts he felt were not done above board, Mr Coltart singled out the parking management system contract that was entered with Tendy Three Investments.
“So let me stress that I am not saying that this contract was necessarily corrupt but when I look at the contract regarding parking, I don’t see it implemented in a way that is in the best interests of the citizens. It has caused a lot of anger, there has not been adequate consultation with businesses. In some cases, businesses have declined because of that and I say again I need to underline this, that I am not accusing this company of corruption. I’m just saying that it is that type of thing which needs to be scrutinised to make sure it is above board and in the best interests of the citizens,” he said.
On the sentiments that the city has faced a decline while in the hands of the opposition for the past 20 years, Mr Coltart claimed the decline goes back 40 years.
“You cannot just blame the decline for the last 20 years. This goes back 40 years, it started after the Unity Accord, quite frankly the last competent city councils that we had were those dominated by ZAPU in the 1980s that has been compounded by the opposition in the last 20 years where we have not used the opportunity to improve affairs,” said Mr Coltart. He, however, emphasised that when elected into council, councillors should quickly rid themselves of the party politics tag.
“My message is, have realistic expectations, if I’m elected what I bring to this council is experience, I bring determination, I bring a track record of achieving going back 40 years and I will do my best to turn this city around but it is going to take a collective effort.
“We have to reach out to all political players, all political parties, Zanu-PF included and that’s what I did in the Ministry of Education. I said the Ministry of Education should be the least political Ministry and the same applies to the running of a city.
All our citizens irrespective of the political views and background need to have clean water, need to have roads need to have clean housing and access to education and its only with that collective effort that we can turn this city around,” he said.
Online Reporter