Opinion / Columnist
Welshman Ncube should seek political settlement with Tshabangu
3 hrs ago | Views
PROF WELSHMAN NCUBE SHOULD FORGET HIS LOSING COURT LITIGATION AGAINST SENATOR TSHABANGU AND SEEK A POLITICAL SETTLEMENT
For Prof Welshman Ncube when it rains, it pours. The Supreme Court this week set aside this judgment
], which he had been granted against Senator Sengezo Tshabangu by Justice Neville Wamambo on 8 January 2025. This was after Senator Tshabangu and the Speaker of the National Assembly had appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.
As the Supreme Court hearing started on Thursday, 15 May 20225, Advocate Method Ndlovu raised a point in limine, seeking to oust the Supreme Court from hearing the matter, by ill-advisedly challenging its jurisdiction and arguing that the matter was constitutional; and that it should have been taken to the Constitutional Court.
Before Advocate could gather himself to make his point in limine, the Court asked him to point to it the "the disposition of the court a quo" in the judgment, namely, the operational part of the order.
Advocate Ndlovu was left in sixes and sevens.
Justice Wamambo's judgment granted to Prof Ncube against Senator Tshabangu on 8 January 2025 did not have an operation order. Advocate Luis Uriri, who represented Senator Tshabangu at the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, characterised Justice Wamambo's judgment as "an essay". This is because it had no legal import or consequence.
Yet, parenthetically, this is precisely the judgment that Prof Ncube used to hurriedly, with shocking political immaturity, and illegally ‘suspend' Tshabangu on 9 January 2025 with an unmistakable intention to expel him; which he did on 19 February 2025, after he orchestrated a kangaroo hearing on 7 February 2025, whose proceedings and decision were set aside by the High Court on 11 April 2025 in this judgment. This judgment also ended Prof Ncube's claim to the presidency of Triple C, as it declared that his term of office had expired on 27 May 2024 and that he was holding office unlawfully.
There's just no way Prof Ncube is going to wriggle out of this judgment, in court. No way. He's placed himself in a cul-de-sac. His claim to be Acting President of CCC is now water under the bridge.
Because the judgment that Prof Ncube had been granted on 8 January 2025 had no operational order, the Supreme Court stopped Advocated Ndlovu dead in his tracks, from arguing his point in limine and proceeded to make this Order (see attachment):
1. The matters SC24/25 and SC26/25 be and are hereby struck off the roll with no order as to costs.
2. In the exercise of the court's review powers in terms of section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act [Chapter 7;13] the proceedings in HCH 5605/24 be and are hereby set aside.
3. The matter is hereby remitted to the court a quo for a hearing de novo before a different judge.
For ease of reference, section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act provides as follows:
25 Review powers
(1) Subject to this section, the Supreme Court and every judge of the Supreme Court shall have the same power, jurisdiction and authority as are vested in the High Court and judges of the High Court, respectively, to review the proceedings and decisions of inferior courts of justice, tribunals and administrative authorities.
(2) The power, jurisdiction and authority conferred by subsection (1) may be exercised whenever it comes to the notice of the Supreme Court or a judge of the Supreme Court that an irregularity has occurred in any proceedings or in the making of any decision notwithstanding that such proceedings are, or such decision is, not the subject of an appeal or application to the Supreme Court.
Supreme
COMMENT
There are three notable points about the order the Supreme Court granted on Thursday:
Firstly, the fact that the Supreme Court struck off the roll the appeals by Senator Tshabangu and the Speaker with no order as to costs stood to reason, because there was no order to appeal.
Secondly, it is notable that the Supreme Court, ex mero motu, invoked its powers under section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act (Chapter 7:13) to set aside the entire proceedings in HCH 5605/24, whose judgment had been granted to Prof Ncube.
In effect, Prof Ncube went into the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday with a judgment he was granted by Justice Wamambo on 8 January 2025 in his pockets, only to lose that judgment within 10 minutes of the hearing; and left the court with empty pockets.
This was a crushing loss for Prof Ncube.
There's no way Advocate Ndlovu can minimise the loss by spinning it around, as he hopelessly attempts to do on the attached video. Senator Tshabangu won, and won big. Even fools can see that.
Thirdly, and this must be devastating for Prof Ncube, that the Supreme Court remitted the record of the matter, whose proceedings it set aside, to the court a quo for a hearing de novo before a different judge; cannot be good news to him because the case has now been overtaken by events.
Case Number HCH 5605/24 won by Prof Ncube on 8 January 2025, whose judgment was set aside by the Supreme Court on Thursday, has been overtaken by Case Number HCH 830/25 won by Senator Tshabangu on 11 April 2025.
When Prof Ncube was granted the judgment in HCH 5605/24 on 8 January 2025, he was styling himself - and seen by some CCC MPs - as the Acting President of CCC; but all that changed when the High Court nullified his claim to CCC's presidency on 11 April 2025, as it declared that his term of office as Acting President of CCC expired on 27 May 2024, and that he was holding office unlawfully. Put simply, he was not the Acting President of CCC.
So, last Thursday on 15 May 2025, when the Supreme Court set aside the judgment that Prof Ncube had won on 8 January 2025 in Case Number HCH 5605/24, Prof Ncube was by law no longer the Acting President of CCC; he was just an ordinary member of CCC; which he is as you read this.
There's a lesson here for Prof Ncube.
As a professor of law, and someone who has been active in politics at various senior levels since 1999, he has enough knowledge and the experience to know only too well that litigating politics in court is unwise, crazy business.
Politically matters are best handled politically, not in court.
It was foolhardy for Prof Ncube to take Senator Tshabangu to court in the first place. The rest is history.
Meanwhile, it would be wise of prof Ncube to eat humble pie and explore political ways through which he and Senator Tshabangu might find each other, politically.
After all, as the art of the possible, politics is only possible through trade-offs to reach a win-win compromise!
For Prof Welshman Ncube when it rains, it pours. The Supreme Court this week set aside this judgment
], which he had been granted against Senator Sengezo Tshabangu by Justice Neville Wamambo on 8 January 2025. This was after Senator Tshabangu and the Speaker of the National Assembly had appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.
As the Supreme Court hearing started on Thursday, 15 May 20225, Advocate Method Ndlovu raised a point in limine, seeking to oust the Supreme Court from hearing the matter, by ill-advisedly challenging its jurisdiction and arguing that the matter was constitutional; and that it should have been taken to the Constitutional Court.
Before Advocate could gather himself to make his point in limine, the Court asked him to point to it the "the disposition of the court a quo" in the judgment, namely, the operational part of the order.
Advocate Ndlovu was left in sixes and sevens.
Justice Wamambo's judgment granted to Prof Ncube against Senator Tshabangu on 8 January 2025 did not have an operation order. Advocate Luis Uriri, who represented Senator Tshabangu at the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, characterised Justice Wamambo's judgment as "an essay". This is because it had no legal import or consequence.
Yet, parenthetically, this is precisely the judgment that Prof Ncube used to hurriedly, with shocking political immaturity, and illegally ‘suspend' Tshabangu on 9 January 2025 with an unmistakable intention to expel him; which he did on 19 February 2025, after he orchestrated a kangaroo hearing on 7 February 2025, whose proceedings and decision were set aside by the High Court on 11 April 2025 in this judgment. This judgment also ended Prof Ncube's claim to the presidency of Triple C, as it declared that his term of office had expired on 27 May 2024 and that he was holding office unlawfully.
There's just no way Prof Ncube is going to wriggle out of this judgment, in court. No way. He's placed himself in a cul-de-sac. His claim to be Acting President of CCC is now water under the bridge.
Because the judgment that Prof Ncube had been granted on 8 January 2025 had no operational order, the Supreme Court stopped Advocated Ndlovu dead in his tracks, from arguing his point in limine and proceeded to make this Order (see attachment):
1. The matters SC24/25 and SC26/25 be and are hereby struck off the roll with no order as to costs.
2. In the exercise of the court's review powers in terms of section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act [Chapter 7;13] the proceedings in HCH 5605/24 be and are hereby set aside.
3. The matter is hereby remitted to the court a quo for a hearing de novo before a different judge.
For ease of reference, section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act provides as follows:
25 Review powers
(1) Subject to this section, the Supreme Court and every judge of the Supreme Court shall have the same power, jurisdiction and authority as are vested in the High Court and judges of the High Court, respectively, to review the proceedings and decisions of inferior courts of justice, tribunals and administrative authorities.
(2) The power, jurisdiction and authority conferred by subsection (1) may be exercised whenever it comes to the notice of the Supreme Court or a judge of the Supreme Court that an irregularity has occurred in any proceedings or in the making of any decision notwithstanding that such proceedings are, or such decision is, not the subject of an appeal or application to the Supreme Court.
Supreme
COMMENT
There are three notable points about the order the Supreme Court granted on Thursday:
Firstly, the fact that the Supreme Court struck off the roll the appeals by Senator Tshabangu and the Speaker with no order as to costs stood to reason, because there was no order to appeal.
Secondly, it is notable that the Supreme Court, ex mero motu, invoked its powers under section 25(2) of the Supreme Court Act (Chapter 7:13) to set aside the entire proceedings in HCH 5605/24, whose judgment had been granted to Prof Ncube.
In effect, Prof Ncube went into the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday with a judgment he was granted by Justice Wamambo on 8 January 2025 in his pockets, only to lose that judgment within 10 minutes of the hearing; and left the court with empty pockets.
This was a crushing loss for Prof Ncube.
There's no way Advocate Ndlovu can minimise the loss by spinning it around, as he hopelessly attempts to do on the attached video. Senator Tshabangu won, and won big. Even fools can see that.
Thirdly, and this must be devastating for Prof Ncube, that the Supreme Court remitted the record of the matter, whose proceedings it set aside, to the court a quo for a hearing de novo before a different judge; cannot be good news to him because the case has now been overtaken by events.
Case Number HCH 5605/24 won by Prof Ncube on 8 January 2025, whose judgment was set aside by the Supreme Court on Thursday, has been overtaken by Case Number HCH 830/25 won by Senator Tshabangu on 11 April 2025.
When Prof Ncube was granted the judgment in HCH 5605/24 on 8 January 2025, he was styling himself - and seen by some CCC MPs - as the Acting President of CCC; but all that changed when the High Court nullified his claim to CCC's presidency on 11 April 2025, as it declared that his term of office as Acting President of CCC expired on 27 May 2024, and that he was holding office unlawfully. Put simply, he was not the Acting President of CCC.
So, last Thursday on 15 May 2025, when the Supreme Court set aside the judgment that Prof Ncube had won on 8 January 2025 in Case Number HCH 5605/24, Prof Ncube was by law no longer the Acting President of CCC; he was just an ordinary member of CCC; which he is as you read this.
There's a lesson here for Prof Ncube.
As a professor of law, and someone who has been active in politics at various senior levels since 1999, he has enough knowledge and the experience to know only too well that litigating politics in court is unwise, crazy business.
Politically matters are best handled politically, not in court.
It was foolhardy for Prof Ncube to take Senator Tshabangu to court in the first place. The rest is history.
Meanwhile, it would be wise of prof Ncube to eat humble pie and explore political ways through which he and Senator Tshabangu might find each other, politically.
After all, as the art of the possible, politics is only possible through trade-offs to reach a win-win compromise!
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