Former Education minister David Coltart yesterday courted the ire of Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo after he seemed to question why the Tsholotsho North MP remained a Zanu PF member during Gukurahundi.
BY STATFF REPORTER
The heated exchange between Coltart and Moyo on Twitter started when one of their followers asked if the two agreed on anything.
Coltart had responded by saying they agreed on a lot of things before Moyo ‘joined Zanu PF in 1999.’
Another follower entered the fray saying Moyo joined Zanu PF in 1979 as the party’s representative in Carlifonia, United States.
Coltart then questioned if the former Information minister shared responsibility for Gukurahundi, but Moyo responded with a tirade against the MDC senior official.
“Moyo went ballistic, angered by what he felt was my suggestion that he was complicit in Gukurahundi,” Coltart said in a follow up post on Facebook.
“I pointed out that I had not made that allegation but that if he was a loyal, card carrying member of Zanu PF during that time, and did not resign or speak out, then he would be complicit. It does raise the issue of our silence in the face of evil.
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“The Bible in Romans 12:9 says ‘Hate what is evil’. Hate is a strong word and allows of no middle ground.
“If we hate something we will not want to have any part of it, not be associated with it in any form. One cannot ‘hate’ something and have any desire to be part of that thing.”
Moyo called Coltart a Rhodie and Selous Scout in a rant that he promised to take further later in the day as he was attending a workshop.
“Only a Rhodie idiot would say it’s not vitriolic to say I’m responsible for Gukurahundi because I was Zanu PF,” Moyo said in a series of tweets.
“How dare David Coltart say I am responsible for Gukurahundi because I was then a member of Zanu PF?
“So to Rhodie idiots everyone who was a member of Zanu PF during that dark period is responsible for Gukurahundi?”
His parting short was “@DavidColtart has said totally unacceptable & idiotic things I will fully respond to tonight. I’m off to an all-day ministry workshop.”
Moyo and Coltart often have heated exchanges on Tweeter on different subjects. Coltart yesterday said it was a pity that Moyo would resort to calling him names.
“It really is a pity that that remains your only rejoinder,” he said after Moyo called him a Rhodie and Selous Scout.
After he was barred from contesting on a Zanu PF ticket in 2005, Moyo wrote on his CV that his father was killed by Gukurahundi.
Thousands of people reportedly died in massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands after the government deployed the 5 Brigade in an operation code named Gukurahundi to hunt down dissidents.
Moyo once advocated for a Bill that would have made compensation for Gukurahundi victims possible.
However, in an interview with BBC in May he said the Gukurahundi issue had been dealt with through the 1987 Unity Accord.
He advised that “in politics it is not wise to carry grudges with you”.
