President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Mr T.M Moyo

Dear Sir
As a private citizen and in terms of Statutory Instrument 37 of 2018, which outlines the code of conduct for legal practitioners in Zimbabwe, I wish to lay an official complaint against one of your members, Obert Chaurura Gutu of Gutu & Chikowero attorneys at Law.

On the 29th of November 2019, Mr Gutu posted the following comments on the social media platform, “Twitter”:
“The son of a Rhodesian-era Selous Scout is crying louder than the bereaved! This guy, together with his racist Rhodesia Front Selous Scout father, most firstly apologise & repent for the murderous & genocidal crimes they committed at Chimoio & Nyadzonia in Mozambique in Nov. 1977”

Mr Gutu’s comments, unsupported by any evidence to substantiate their validity, sought to cast aspersions on the character of Messrs Doug Coltart and his father David Coltart by labelling them as racists and implying that they were part of and responsible for the colonial era massacres that were carried out by the then colonial government.

Although he did not mention the Coltarts by name in his comments, it is a matter of public record that a political narrative, built on a false position (see attached Appendix) of Mr David Coltart’s alleged association with the Rhodesian regime’s Selous Scouts, has been pursued by his political opponents to imply that he was part of the injustices pursued by the colonial government It is therefore clear who Mr Gutu was referring to in his tweet

That said, section 23 of the Legal Practitioners code cautions legal practitioners from “failing or neglecting to treat professional colleagues with courtesy, respect and fairness”.

Mr Gutu’s allegations against the Coltarts, who are registered legal practitioners, calling them racist, murderous and genocidal, was neither courteous, respectful and fair. Mr Gutu was therefore in clear violation of the code to the extent that he also may have brought “the legal profession into disrepute”.

I therefore submit that the Law Society of Zimbabwe considers an investigation into this infringement of the code b Mr Gutu and offer appropriate sanction to this unbecoming behavior by one of your members.
Kind Regards