The High Court will hear next Monday a case where Welshman Ncube, leader of a faction of the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), is challenging a decision made by Sengezo Tshabangu to remove party members from their parliamentary positions, reported Chronicle.
Tshabangu, a former MDC activist, seized CCC after the August 2023 elections and fired several legislators and councillors.
Recently, Tshabangu removed Lynette Karenyi-Kore, the CCC’s leader of the opposition in Parliament, and Edwin Mushoriwa, the chief whip, from their positions though they remained in Parliament.
Ncube, through his law firm, filed an urgent application at the Bulawayo High Court seeking an order to cancel Tshabangu’s decision to fire Karenyi-Kore and Mushoriwa.
He also wants Tshabangu to be stopped from making further changes to the CCC’s representatives in Parliament.
Ncube argues that Tshabangu has no authority to make such changes without approval from CCC’s decision-making bodies.
He is asking the court to prevent the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, from announcing any of Tshabangu’s changes. Said Ncube:
I contend that neither first respondent (Mr Tshabangu) nor second respondent (Adv Mudenda) has the authority to remove the fifth applicant (Mr Mushoriwa) from his position as opposition chief whip in the National Assembly without a resolution of the organs of 1st applicant, (CCC party).
I must state that the fifth applicant was appointed democratically to that position by the CCC party following a formal resolution of the Parliamentary Caucus of the first applicant, which resolved at a formal meeting of the Caucus, to recommend the fifth applicant as chief whip of the party in the National Assembly.
Ncube said the recommendation was accepted and subsequently implemented by the party.
He contested the appointment of Mlotshwa as the opposition chief whip, arguing that the position does not exist under the National Constitution or the standing orders of Parliament. Said Ncube:
In appointing himself the overall leader of the opposition in Parliament, the first respondent has placed himself above his seniors in the hierarchy of the party thereby disrespecting the organisational integrity of the party.
Ncube argued that, from his self-appointed and non-existent position, Tshabangu has imposed a reign of terror on party members in Parliament, frequently threatening them with recalls, despite a High Court order prohibiting him from doing so.
In response, Tshabangu, through his lawyer Nqobani Sithole of Ncube Attorneys, filed a notice of opposition, claiming that Ncube has no authority to represent or act on behalf of the CCC party. He argued:
The second applicant (Prof Ncube) has not been able to demonstrate a real and substantial interest in the declaratory in his personal capacity, which is the first requirement for any person to bring a declaratory.
On that basis, the second applicant is non-suited and his affidavit must be struck off together with its annexures. As such, the entire application must be dismissed with costs.
Tshabangu further argued that the matter is not urgent, saying the urgency claimed by Ncube arises solely from his desire to prevent announcements of changes that had already been implemented. Said Tshabangu:
In any event, the attempt to interdict the announcement is inconsequential and irrelevant as the announcement was meant for information purposes only.
Moreover, the third respondent (Ms Mlotshwa) is and has always been the chief whip in the senate before the alleged changes and deployment.
The so-called resolution authorising the party to bring this lawsuit does not speak to this issue at all. It is dated 23 January 2022 long before this legal dispute could have been envisaged, and at a time when Nelson Chamisa was president of the party.
Tshabangu also disputed Ncube’s claim that he was the acting president of the CCC party. He said:
He was not appointed to act in that capacity in perpetuity by the party. In any event, his term of office and that of the entire executive along with him has expired.
CCC’s founding president, Nelson Chamisa, left the party in January this year after both the courts and Parliament consistently sided with Tshabangu, despite him not being part of the opposition’s leadership and being a largely unknown figure.
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