Entry into politics

In 1983, whilst working as a lawyer, 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 1985 he served as campaign manager for all the independent candidates contesting seats in Matabeleland. The independent candidates stood against Ian Smith's then Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe.

In 1991 Coltart spoke out against proposed economic liberalisation, arguing that it would not work without political liberalisation.^[10]

In 1992 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 June 1992 he drafted the Forum Party's manifesto entitled A Blueprint for Zimbabwe.^[11]

In 1994 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.^[12]

In 1998 and 1999 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.^[4]

In 1999 Coltart was asked to join the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 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, Coltart was elected secretary for legal affairs. This position gave him the responsibility of formulating the MDC justice policy, of conducting the MDC's electoral court challenges and of organising the legal defence of MDC members who had been detained and prosecuted, including Morgan Tsvangirai's treason trial.^[4]

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.^[13] On the evening of 4 October, Coltart's house was raided by eleven armed police looking for equipment that was allegedly in contravention of the Radio Communications Act. The police failed to produce a valid search warrant, but nevertheless conducted the search and found nothing. The houses of other directors were also searched and equipment was seized from the Radio's broadcasting premises.^[14]

Member of Parliament

Election campaign March 2005

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. During his first term in Parliament he was the Shadow Justice Minister and chaired the Parliamentary Justice Committee. He was re-elected in the March 2005 general election, winning his seat with a 76% majority against a ZANU-PF cabinet minister.

During the June 2000 election one of Coltart's polling agents, Patrick Nabanyama, was abducted in front of his family and has not been seen since.^[15] Six war veterans were arrested but later pardoned. One of those arrested, Cain Nkala, was subsequently murdered in November 2001. ZANU PF accused Coltart of involvement and imprisoned his former campaign manager for five weeks before dropping charges.^[16] Nkala's death has since been blamed on his own party, ZANU PF, following suggestions that he was about to publicise what happened to Nabanyama, although this has not been proved either.^[17][18]

During this time, Coltart's family were reported to have evacuated to South Africa^[19] but this was refuted when his wife, Jennifer, went to the offices of The Chronicle with their two-month-old daughter to prove they had remained in the country.^[20]

Coltart was again linked to Nkala's death in ZANU PF's 2002 presidential election campaign, which also emphasised his former role in the BSAP and falsely accused him of being a former member of the Rhodesian Selous Scouts.^[21] Mugabe accused him of being an instrument of the British and announced in September 2002 that such people, "like Bennett and Coltart, are not part of our society. They belong to Britain and let them go there... If they want to live here, we will say 'stay', but your place is in prison and nowhere else."^[22]

Coltart was the subject of much harassment in the early 2000s. He received numerous death threats,^[16][23] and was arrested and briefly detained in February 2002 for allegedly discharging a firearm in a public place.^[24] Charges were eventually withdrawn in June 2003.^[16] In March 2003, Coltart, with his two youngest children (then aged 9 and 6 months), drove out of the family home and were followed at speed by three armed men around their neighbourhood until the pursuers were intercepted by Coltart's security team and Coltart and his children were secured in a safe house.^[16]

As MP for Bulawayo South, Coltart established the Bulawayo South Development Trust to assist poorer communities in his constituency. The trust's remit was extended to cover the Khumalo constituency when Coltart was elected senator for Khumalo in March 2008. The trust has developed self-sustaining farming projects, given assistance to individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS and funded other individuals facing various difficult circumstances.^[25]

In 2003, 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.^[26] He also helped them draft their protest statement.

MDC split

When the Movement for Democratic Change split in October 2005 Coltart was the only member of the National Executive of the party not to take sides in an effort to reconcile the two factions which emerged after the split. He eventually joined the smaller Welshman Ncube faction (MDC-N), stating the Tsvangirai faction's (MDC-T) unwillingness to confront violence within the party as the prevailing factor in his decision.^[27]

Minister for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture

In the March 2008 Senate election, Coltart won the seat of Khumalo, standing for the Mutambara faction of the MDC; he received 8,021 votes against 6,077 for Joubert Mangena of the Tsvangirai faction.^[28] When the ZANU-PF–MDC Government of National Unity was sworn in on 13 February 2009, Coltart became Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. In May he was appointed in addition to the position of co-chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.^[29]

Opening ceremony of the African Olympic Hockey Qualifiers 2011

As Minister for Education, Coltart brought an end to the ongoing teacher strikes, enabling schools to re-open in 2009.^[30] He has raised teacher salaries, although they remain significantly lower than the figure demanded by the unions.^[31] He has not abolished the controversial 'teacher incentives' that school pupils are expected to pay in many schools to supplement teachers' incomes.^[32] In 2010 Coltart secured funding via UNICEF to provide all school children with textbooks in certain core subjects.^[33] He has also set in motion a curriculum review, the first since the 1980s,^[34] and is planning to establish Academies of Excellence in each province, with full scholarships available for talented disadvantaged children.^[35]

In his role as Sports Minister, Coltart was instrumental in Zimbabwe's re-entry into Test cricket in August 2011, their first Test in six years.^[36] Coltart was also 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.^[37]

Coltart's term of office as Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture ended on 22 August 2013 after he lost the Bulawayo east Parliamentary seat by 19 votes.