Online Reporter
Gibson Nyikadzino, Zimpapers Politics Hub
PROMINENT opposition politician and lawyer, Professor Welshman Ncube, has apologised to interim secretary general Senator Sengezo Tshabangu for making a “careless” court challenge against him. This follows the High Court’s declaration last month that Prof Ncube’s presidency in the Citizen Coalition for Change (CCC) party was invalid.
Senator Tshabangu was expelled from the CCC in February but reinstated to his post by Judge President Mary Dube last month at the High Court, on the basis that the disciplinary committee was improperly constituted and that Prof Ncube no longer had the mandate to lead the party. Senator Tshabangu argued that the disciplinary committee’s terms of office had expired on May 27, 2024, in accordance with the CCC constitution, a submission Justice Dube concurred with.
This has added to the CCC’s complex confusion as Prof Ncube, on April 25, filed a 2 087-page urgent court application with the High Court in Harare for the rescission of the judgement that reinstated Senator Tshabangu to his post. The matter is set down for today.
In his founding affidavit, Prof Ncube alleges that he lost the case because the High Court ruled on it as a “default judgment” while acknowledging that his heads of argument had technical errors. Justice Dube, however, passed judgment on the basis that the technical errors in Prof Ncube’s application were defective, hence the heads of argument were removed and the application considered invalid.
Prof Ncube defended his loss of the case against Senator Tshabangu, attributing it to a “genuine error made under pressure of the circumstances”.
“The reference to the 5th Respondent in the main matter HCH830/25 as 1st Applicant was a typographical error initially made in instructed Counsel’s first draft of the opposing affidavit, which I and Mr Mahlangu, who worked on settling that draft, failed to notice and correct. It was a genuine error made under pressure of the circumstances under which the opposing papers were prepared. While careless, it was not deliberate and certainly did not indicate any disdain for the Rules of Court nor did it suggest that 1st Applicant was being wilful in any way. An unfortunate error, for which I apologise to the Court and Respondent, was made,” said Prof Ncube.
Zimbabwe’s former minister and political scientist Prof Jonathan Moyo criticised Prof Ncube for wanting to use the court as a platform to relitigate his matter after making “costly mistakes”. He dismissed Prof Ncube’s allegation that he lost the case because the court ruled on it as a “default judgment”, noting that Judge Dube did not make reference “to any default of any kind”, adding that his error was not just unfortunate, but careless for a “professor of law and a senior member of the bar to make”.
“Prof Ncube made two elementary but costly mistakes that contributed — although they were not the only factor — to his losing the case whose judgment he now wants the court to rescind, and reopen to enable him to relitigate the case; so he can correct his own careless mistakes. Normally or usually, a rescission application is made to correct a mistake made or an injustice done by the court. Not so, in this case,” Prof Moyo wrote on his X handle.
