47 Facts About David Coltart

David Coltart was born on 4 October 1957 and is a Zimbabwean lawyer, Christian leader and politician.

David Coltart was a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change when it was established in 1999 and its founding secretary for legal affairs.

David Coltart was the Minister for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture from February 2009 until August 2013.

David Coltart has served as the Mayor of Bulawayo since September 2023.

David Coltart was born an only child to a Scottish bank manager father and a South African nurse mother.

David Coltart's mother was the descendant of British settlers who settled in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820.

When David Coltart was a young child the family relocated to Bulawayo.

David Coltart was educated at Hillside Primary School followed by Christian Brothers College, a Catholic private school run by the Irish Christian Brothers, in Bulawayo.

David Coltart left the BSAP by purchasing the remaining balance of his initial 3-year contract.

David Coltart did general duties in Mashonaland, Matabeleland South, and Victoria provinces.

Shortly after this, David Coltart received a telegram from then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe stating the new Zimbabwe government's commitment to building a multiracial society and encouraging David Coltart to return home after his studies.

Whilst at university, David Coltart was elected to serve on the Law Students' Council and was director of the Crossroads Legal Aid clinic, which provided services to indigent black South Africans.

In June 1981 David Coltart became a professing Christian, an event which had a profound impact on his life and which has informed his thinking greatly ever since.

Since 1983 David Coltart has regularly spoken on Christian issues and periodically preaches in Zimbabwean churches and abroad.

David Coltart was admitted as a Legal Practitioner of the Zimbabwean High Court in February 1983.

David Coltart was appointed a partner of Webb, Low and Barry in 1984 and became the firm's senior partner in 1998, a position he still holds.

In 1986, David Coltart authored a detailed report concerning human rights abuses in Matabeleland during 1985, which was submitted to the Minister of Justice and the governor of Matabeleland North.

In 1987 David Coltart founded the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre, a legal aid clinic, and was its director until 1997.

In 1990 David Coltart helped establish and became a board member of the Central and Southern African Legal Assistance Foundation.

David Coltart played an instrumental role in the first detailed investigation into the genocide committed by the Mugabe regime in Matabeleland between 1982 and 1987.

David Coltart initiated the project as director of the Bulawayo Legal Projects Centre, one of the operational arms of the Legal Resources Centre in 1990.

The publication of the report led to David Coltart being publicly criticised on national television by Robert Mugabe in February 1999, who stated that:.

In 1983, whilst working as a lawyer, David Coltart became involved in campaigning against the Republican Front, serving as campaign manager for Bob Nixon, the first independent to unseat the RF in 17 years.

In 1991 David Coltart spoke out against proposed economic liberalisation, arguing that it would not work without political liberalisation.

In 1992 David Coltart was appointed legal adviser to the opposition Forum Party, established that year and led by Dr Enoch Dumbutshena, Zimbabwe's first black Chief Justice.

In 1994 David Coltart wrote an open letter to Mugabe and the church in Zimbabwe condemning corruption, human rights abuses and the failure of justice and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

In 1998 and 1999 David Coltart sat on the Constitutional Drafting Committee of the National Constitutional Assembly and played a role in advocating successfully for the rejection of the government's draft constitution in the February 2000 referendum.

In 1999 David Coltart was asked to join the Movement for Democratic Change by trade union leader Morgan Tsvangirai who appointed him interim Legal Secretary for the party.

In January 2000, at the inaugural congress of the MDC, David Coltart was elected secretary for legal affairs.

David Coltart was one of the founders and directors of Capital Radio, an independent radio station that started broadcasting on 28 September 2000 from a hotel in Harare, following a Supreme Court ruling that nullified the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's monopoly.

David Coltart was elected to the House of Assembly in the 2000 election as a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, unseating the ZANU-PF incumbent and becoming the MP for Bulawayo South.

David Coltart was again linked to Nkala's death in ZANU PF's 2002 presidential election campaign, which emphasised his former role in the BSAP and falsely accused him of being a former member of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts.

David Coltart was the subject of much harassment in the early 2000s.

David Coltart received numerous death threats, and was arrested and briefly detained in February 2002 for allegedly discharging a firearm in a public place.

The trust's remit was extended to cover the Khumalo constituency when David Coltart was elected senator for Khumalo in March 2008.

In 2003, David Coltart met with the Zimbabwean cricketers Andy Flower and Henry Olonga to discuss their plans for making a protest against the Mugabe regime at the forthcoming World Cup, and came up with the idea of the two cricketers wearing black armbands during the match, signifying the death of democracy in Zimbabwe.

David Coltart eventually joined the smaller Welshman Ncube faction, stating the Tsvangirai faction's unwillingness to confront violence within the party as the prevailing factor in his decision.

David Coltart has raised teacher salaries, although they remain significantly lower than the figure demanded by the unions.

David Coltart did not abolish the controversial 'teacher incentives' that school pupils are expected to pay in many schools to supplement teachers' incomes.

In 2010 David Coltart secured funding via UNICEF to provide all school children with textbooks in certain core subjects.

David Coltart has set in motion a curriculum review, the first since the 1980s, and planned to establish Academies of Excellence in each province, with full scholarships available for talented disadvantaged children.

David Coltart was influential in the refurbishment of Bulawayo's Khumalo Hockey Stadium, enabling it to host the African Olympic Hockey Qualifiers in September 2011 in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.

David Coltart is against the death penalty, which is legal in Zimbabwe, and is anti-abortion.

Since the formation of the inclusive government in February 2009, David Coltart repeatedly argued against the use of sanctions in Zimbabwe, claiming that they are ineffective and that the international community should support the transitional government as Zimbabwe's only viable non-violent route towards a more democratic society.

David Coltart is opposed to the use of violence as a solution to the problems facing Zimbabwe, believing that political transition must occur gradually through democratic means.

David Coltart has criticised the West for high levels of military spending in relation to the development assistance they give.

David Coltart is a proponent of nuclear disarmament and is a World Council member of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.