Opinion / Columnist
Mayor Coltart to forgo new mayoral limo. Yeah, the anaesthetic bite of deadly bug.
20 Sep 2023 at 07:11hrs | Views
His Worship David Coltart, the newly elected CCC Mayor of the City of Bulawayo, has announced that he will not be buying a new mayoral car for the next 5 years!
"I came here using a car which has been used by the council for the past nine years, that car is enough for the whole of my term, I'm not going to get a new car for the next five years, unless we have enough ambulances," said Coltart.
"How can we have new cars whilst we have only five ambulances instead of 30, we only have four fire engines and six refuse trucks and we need the minimum of 11. So, it starts with me and it needs to reflect in you."
A grand gesture from the Mayor and this is not the first time that Coltart has done this. When he was appointed Minister of Education in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, he refused to take his allocated ministerial car. He accepted all the other benefits including the generous salary and allowances, the fuel allocation, globe trotting, etc.!
What is most notable about MDC leaders during the GNU is that they were all busy enjoying the trappings of high office they forgot about implementing the democratic reforms, the number one task entrusted to them during the GNU. Their greed was so obvious that Zanu PF cronies openly mocked the MDC leaders.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learned to quietly enjoy the gravy train good-life; they will never rock the boat!) Zanu PF boasted when they were asked why MDC was not implementing the democratic reforms.
True enough, MDC leaders did not rock the GNU boat: they failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Not even one token reform!
When SADC leaders realised the 2013 elections were going ahead with no reforms implemented; they advised MDC leader not to participate in the elections until reforms were implemented. The wise council fell on deaf ears. David Coltart was one of the MDC leaders who have since admitted of the sheer futility of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and the failed state which is Zimbabwe today!
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
No doubt, Mayor Coltart must have tried to persuade his fellow MDC/CCC leaders on the the sheer insanity of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. When he discovered there were no takers, for exactly the reasons the MDC leaders had ignored SADC leaders to implement the reforms during the GNU - greed and breath-taking incompetence - Coltart throw in the towel. He joined the rest of the opposition in participating in rigged elections out of greed.
Zimbabwe would have been transformed into a healthy and functioning democratic nation by 2013, at the latest, if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms. We are still a failed state stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship because the regime has been rigging the elections thanks to MDC leaders' betrayal on reforms.
Mayor Coltart and his CCC friends participated in these 2023 elections knowing fully well that doing so would give the election process "credibility" and thus give Zanu PF political legitimacy. (The SADC and AU election observers have since dismiss the election process as a sham and thus denying Zanu PF political legitimacy, regardless of the full house Zimbabwe opposition's participation.)
Like it or not the city of Bulawayo will not buy the required 25 ambulances, fire engines, etc. from the money saved from buying a new mayoral car. What the city and the nation needs is an end to this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship but for that to happen we must implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. At the present moment the greatest impediment to implementing reforms is none other than the MDC/CCC leaders who have sold out on reforms out of greed.
How ironic that Mayor David Coltart is denied himself the mayoral car and is making a big song and dance about it. Meanwhile he and his fellow CCC leaders continue participating in these flawed elections to perpetuate the failed state and the tragic human suffering it has brought out of selfish greed!
Mayor Coltart and his CCC leaders are now nothing but the disease carrying fleas, the anaesthetic in their bite in not for the victim's benefit but the bug's - it will gorge itself unperturbed!
"I came here using a car which has been used by the council for the past nine years, that car is enough for the whole of my term, I'm not going to get a new car for the next five years, unless we have enough ambulances," said Coltart.
"How can we have new cars whilst we have only five ambulances instead of 30, we only have four fire engines and six refuse trucks and we need the minimum of 11. So, it starts with me and it needs to reflect in you."
A grand gesture from the Mayor and this is not the first time that Coltart has done this. When he was appointed Minister of Education in the 2008 to 2013 GNU, he refused to take his allocated ministerial car. He accepted all the other benefits including the generous salary and allowances, the fuel allocation, globe trotting, etc.!
What is most notable about MDC leaders during the GNU is that they were all busy enjoying the trappings of high office they forgot about implementing the democratic reforms, the number one task entrusted to them during the GNU. Their greed was so obvious that Zanu PF cronies openly mocked the MDC leaders.
"Mazivanhu eMDC adzidza kudya anyerere!" (MDC leaders have learned to quietly enjoy the gravy train good-life; they will never rock the boat!) Zanu PF boasted when they were asked why MDC was not implementing the democratic reforms.
True enough, MDC leaders did not rock the GNU boat: they failed to implement even one token reform in five years. Not even one token reform!
When SADC leaders realised the 2013 elections were going ahead with no reforms implemented; they advised MDC leader not to participate in the elections until reforms were implemented. The wise council fell on deaf ears. David Coltart was one of the MDC leaders who have since admitted of the sheer futility of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy and thus perpetuating the dictatorship and the failed state which is Zimbabwe today!
"The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn't now do the obvious – withdraw from the (2013) elections," confessed Coltart in his Book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe.
"The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility."
No doubt, Mayor Coltart must have tried to persuade his fellow MDC/CCC leaders on the the sheer insanity of participating in these flawed elections to give Zanu PF legitimacy. When he discovered there were no takers, for exactly the reasons the MDC leaders had ignored SADC leaders to implement the reforms during the GNU - greed and breath-taking incompetence - Coltart throw in the towel. He joined the rest of the opposition in participating in rigged elections out of greed.
Zimbabwe would have been transformed into a healthy and functioning democratic nation by 2013, at the latest, if MDC leaders had implemented the democratic reforms. We are still a failed state stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship because the regime has been rigging the elections thanks to MDC leaders' betrayal on reforms.
Mayor Coltart and his CCC friends participated in these 2023 elections knowing fully well that doing so would give the election process "credibility" and thus give Zanu PF political legitimacy. (The SADC and AU election observers have since dismiss the election process as a sham and thus denying Zanu PF political legitimacy, regardless of the full house Zimbabwe opposition's participation.)
Like it or not the city of Bulawayo will not buy the required 25 ambulances, fire engines, etc. from the money saved from buying a new mayoral car. What the city and the nation needs is an end to this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship but for that to happen we must implement the democratic reforms and end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance. At the present moment the greatest impediment to implementing reforms is none other than the MDC/CCC leaders who have sold out on reforms out of greed.
How ironic that Mayor David Coltart is denied himself the mayoral car and is making a big song and dance about it. Meanwhile he and his fellow CCC leaders continue participating in these flawed elections to perpetuate the failed state and the tragic human suffering it has brought out of selfish greed!
Mayor Coltart and his CCC leaders are now nothing but the disease carrying fleas, the anaesthetic in their bite in not for the victim's benefit but the bug's - it will gorge itself unperturbed!
Source - zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
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