There is no doubt Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart is one of the best performing ministers in the inclusive government and this makes the ongoing media onslaught against him rather curious.
Column by Kholwani Nyathi
Coltart appears to have touched a raw nerve when he caused the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) to issue a directive regarding the appointment of national selectors for different sports disciplines.
The directive confined the appointment of national selectors to ex-players who actually participated in their respective sport at international level and/or represented the country.
A clique in cricket that claims credit for the rapid integration of black Zimbabweans into the sport — which also saw the mass exodus of white players at the turn of the millennium — felt Coltart was unfairly targeting them.
Before the SRC directive NSA 1/2013 could be debated — especially by other affected disciplines such as tennis and bowls — a media onslaught was already in full swing against the minister. Critics chose the cheapest way to cloud the debate by labelling Coltart racist.
Apparently in the poisoned Zimbabwean political environment, it seems the easiest way to subdue someone in a debate is labelling them a racist or tribalist.
Blaming all our misfortunes on racists and neo-colonialists is a pastime for our political leaders these days.
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Labelling is a political tool and negative labels in this case could have been intentional.
Debate by an elite in the cricket establishment that has benefited a lot from the chaos that has dogged the sport in Zimbabwe for so long, has been intense, but based on negative labels on Coltart. This is obviously meant to disempower him.
Over a month since the directive was issued, the country is still not sufficiently informed about what Coltart sought to achieve because the debate has been clouded by the unsubstantiated allegations of racism instead of explicating his intentions and what he hopes to achieve.
Zimbabwe has a string of talented former black players who can take up the roles envisaged by the minister and it is difficult to understand what this hullaballoo is all about.
I am not about to discount the fact there could be racist elements in Zimbabwe cricket still bent on protecting their elitist interests. But another opportunity has been lost to rehabilitate Zimbabwean sports because of narrow political interests.
Cricket, just like other sports, is becoming a hostage of politics and the vitriol being spewed by Zanu PF against Coltart just about betrays the grand strategy.
Once the minister has been successfully labelled a racist, all his positive contribution to Zimbabwe sport and the education sector in his short four-year term as a Cabinet minister will be forgotten.
Anyone who has been in Zimbabwe for the first time in the past few weeks will not believe when told, that this is the same Coltart who inherited an education sector that was in an extreme crisis between 2005 and 2009.
He found a number of schools closed and teachers spending most of their time on strike than in classrooms. The majority of students had no textbooks.
Through the Education Transition Fund that Coltart spearheaded, donors returned to rescue the education sector.
The primary school pass rate that had dropped to 52% was last year up to 70%. Although as clearly shown by the recently released Zimbabwe School Examination Council Ordinary Level results, pass rates still remain poor; there are significant signs of recovery in the education sector.
Coltart has shown in many other ways that he is patriotic besides his commendable work in reviving education.
His interaction on social networks with fellow Zimbabweans has also made him a cut above the rest in the current Cabinet.
Those calling him a racist today are also making a mockery of Coltart’s track record as a human rights defender.
As a lawyer in newly independent Zimbabwe, he represented Zapu leaders such as the late Sydney Malunga, Edward Ndlovu and Stephen Nkomo, who were hounded by Zanu PF for their political beliefs. He also handled many other human rights cases stemming from the Gukurahundi genocide, which are hardly a hallmark of a racist.
Zanu PF might still be bitter about Coltart’s role in exposing the Gukurahundi massacres, but that does not justify the lynching he is getting from the media.
There is still a chance to debate SRC directive NSA 1/2013 in a sobre manner for the sake of all sports, which are likely to be strangulated by politics of intolerance.
