David Coltart - Early Life

Early Life

Coltart was born in Gwelo, Midlands Province, in the former Southern Rhodesia (Gwelo would become Gweru in 1982). He was born an only child to a Scottish bank manager father and a South African nurse mother. His mother was the descendant of British settlers who settled in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. His Scottish grandfather was Deputy Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1938. His mother was the descendant of British settlers who settled in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820. When Coltart was a young child the family relocated to Bulawayo.

He was educated at Hillside Primary School followed by Christian Brothers College, a Catholic private school run by Irish Brothers, in Bulawayo. After matriculation, Coltart was conscripted to do military service (as was required of all white male Rhodesians at the time) and served in the BSAP from September 1975 to January 1977 in the Mashonaland, Matabeleland South, and Victoria provinces (Victoria became Masvingo province in 1980).

After his conscription Coltart enrolled at the University of Cape Town in 1978. At UCT he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Law as well as his LLB (post-graduate law degree). While at UCT Coltart first became involved in politics when he was elected as Chairman of the Zimbabwe Students' Society. In 1981 he was threatened with deportation by the then apartheid government who did not like his activities promoting the new independent Zimbabwe. Shortly after this, Coltart received a telegram from then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe stating the new Zimbabwe government's commitment to building a multiracial society and encouraging Coltart to return home after his studies. Whilst at university, Coltart was also 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 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 Coltart has regularly spoken on Christian issues and periodically preaches in Zimbabwean churches and abroad.

Coltart married Jennifer Reine Barrett in 1983. They have four children, Jessica, Douglas, Scott and Bethany.