Welshman Ncube

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn
Professor
Welshman Ncube
Welshman-Ncube.jpg
Born (1961-07-07) July 7, 1961 (age 62)
Gweru
Known forFormer Minister of Industry and Commerce
Political partyCitizens Coalition for Change

Welshman Ncube is a Zimbabwean lawyer and politician who is a senior official in the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). He used to be one of the three vice presidents of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Nelson Chamisa. He was elected to this position at the party's congress in May 2019. Ncube had been a leader of a breakaway party from the MDC since 2005 until August 2017 when the party rejoined the MDC-T to form the MDC Alliance, which was later renamed to just MDC.

Personal Details

Born: 7 July 1961 in Gweru. He is the fourth born in a family of eight, who grew up in the rural areas as his parents were farmers.[1]
Education: Mzilikazi Secondary School, Bulawayo.
Children: Ncube's son Wesley Bongani Ncube is husband to South African President Jacob Zuma's daughter, Gugulethu. [2]
Welshman Ncube's son Ntabiso died in July 2012. He was a first-year Law student at Rhodes University in South Africa. Ntabiso died in Harare on Saturday 21 July 2012 after he was involved in an accident.[3]
Marriage: To Minenhle Gumede.
On 24 July 2017, Welshman Ncube reportedly assaulted his wife Minenhle Gumede. According to a report by The Herald, the matter was reported to Hillside Police Station where a docket under CR42/07/17 was opened against Professor Ncube.

He was charged with physical abuse in terms of section 3(1) (a) of the Domestic Violence Act.

On 14 July at around 1.30 pm, Prof Ncube met his wife in Bulawayo’s central business district and ordered her to get into his car so that he could drive to her house in Bulawayo’s Morningside suburb where they intended to resolve an undisclosed important issue.

Along the way, Prof Ncube diverted from the route and drove to his house in Hillside. On arrival at his house, Prof Ncube allegedly ordered the complainant to disembark from the car but she refused.

He got angry and pulled her from the car before allegedly dragging her towards the house. During the alleged scuffle, Ms Gumede’s wristwatch was damaged. Gumede tried to escape, but Prof Ncube blocked her before allegedly slapping her on the cheek.

Gumede left the house and when she was by the gate, Prof Ncube followed her and gave her a handbag and a shoe, which she had left in the car while being dragged out. She reported the matter to the police leading to Prof Ncube’s arrest. Gumede was referred to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) for medical examination but she did not go.
The matter was taken to court where Gumede opted to withdraw the charges against Welshman Ncube.[4]
Relationship: with Henrietta Rushwaya Documents obtained from ZIFA by The Herald in 2011 showed that Henrietta Rushwaya and Welshman Ncube travelled together to and from Johannesburg on three occasions inside 11 days (between June 29 and July 9 2010) during the global football tournament. The documents further showed that earlier Prof Ncube had travelled to Johannesburg with Rushwaya, purportedly on the ZIFA account.
Rushwaya made the flight reservations on all five occasions, raising speculation on the nature of her relationship with Ncube, who at the time was the Minister of Industry and Commerce.
ZIFA received an invoice from travel agent Led Travel & Tours indicating that Rushwaya was indebted to the tune of nearly US$9 000 for flights made during the World Cup period. The invoice was delivered on 15 July just 12 days before the ZIFA board suspended Rushwaya on allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Rushwaya was subsequently fired on 26 October 2010 after a disciplinary tribunal ruled that she be dismissed for mismanagement and insubordination.
Rushwaya declined to disclose the nature of her relationship with Prof Ncube, saying:

"All I can say is that we were working together on programmes related to the World Cup. In any event, Prof Ncube only travelled twice to South Africa during the period you are referring to although I had made several bookings. I think this was because of various other commitments he had at the time."

She, however, would not elaborate on what programmes the two were working on outside the jurisdiction of the relevant Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. Investigations by The Herald also showed that two days before the World Cup final match between the Netherlands and eventual champions Spain, Rushwaya also booked a return ticket to Johannesburg on behalf of Prof Ncube, presumably for the politician to watch the historic match. She then went on to book two more return tickets for herself and a local sports journalist with whom she apparently travelled to South Africa on the eve of the match. [5]

School/Education

He holds a Bachelor of Law (BL), Bachelor of Laws (BLL) and a Master of Philosophy degrees all from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).

Service/Career

His academic prowess prompted him to join the MDC at its formation in 1999 becoming its first secretary general in the same year. He was in 2011 elected unopposed as the MDC president after the expiry of the term of Arthur Mutambara.[6] Ncube was in 2000 voted as the Bulawayo North East member of parliament. His major success in politics however came in 2009 when he was appointed the Industry and Commerce minister during the Government of National Unity (GNU).

In the 2000 Elections, (see A History of Zimbabwean Elections) Bulawayo North East returned to Parliament:

Positions Held

  • Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change (1999 -2005)
  • Law Professor at the University of Zimbabwe (1992–present)
  • High Court & Supreme Courts Advocate
  • Member of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
  • Chairman of Parliamentary Legal Committee
  • Advisory Board Member of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association
  • Lecturer in the Faculty of Law department- University of Zimbabwe (1986 - 1992)
  • Spokesperson of the National Constitutional Assembly

Events

Breaking off from MDC in 2005

In 2005 there was disagreement within the MDC leadership on whether the party was supposed to participate in Senate elections scheduled for November 26. The matter was put to a vote of the National Executive Council and the outcome 33:31 in favour of participating. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai however disagreed and insisted that the party was not supposed to participate, effectively overruling the National Council's vote outcome.

A group led by then Party Vice President Gibson Sibanda decided to split from the main party led by Tsvangirai. Ncube was part of the group along with MDC Deputy Secretary General Gift Chimanikire, party treasurer Fletcher Dulini Ncube, and spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi.

Ncube's group retained the name MDC and participated in elections as a separate party onward. Tsvangirai's faction assumed the name MDC-T (for Tsvangirai)even though they insisted they were the original MDC. There were suggestions at that time that the split was also on ethnic lines as most of the pro-senate elections participation group was from Matabeleland

In a 2011 interview with NewsDay, Ncube said he regretted the split:

“The split of the MDC, in my entire life, my 50 years by July this year, is something that hurts me the most. The most painful and hurtful period in my life was October 2005 to February 2006, the period of the split. No other period in my life have I suffered more pain, more hurt and more agony. It’s something I reflect on regularly and ask if we could have done things differently if there could there have been another outcome. I regret the split of the MDC daily, but I take heart in that if the situation that we were in was to present itself again, I would take the same route.”

CBZ lawsuit

CBZ Bank took Welshman Ncube to court seeking an order compelling him to settle a $100 000 loan advanced to him in January 2010. [7]

Forming the MDC Alliance

In August 2017 the MDC formed an alliance with the MDC-T along with 6 other parties some of which had also broken away from the main MDC-T. The parties came together under the name MDC Alliance and were mostly motivated by their perceived need of a coalition to contest the July 2018 elections.

MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai died in February 2018 of cancer and the party's presidency was controversially assumed by one of the vice presidents, Nelson Chamisa. After the elections in 2018, the party decided to just refer to itself as the MDC.

Election to MDC Vice Presidency - 2019

At the first MDC Congress in May 2019 since the merger of the different groups, Welshman Ncube was elected the one of the party's 3 vice presidents. The others being Tendai Biti and Lynette Karenyi.

Mutapa Investment Fund

Another opinion says the Mutapa Investment Fund is a fiasco.

President Mnangagwa’s use of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures Act) to rename the Sovereign Wealth Fund to Mutapa Investment Fund and to transfer shareholding of 20 state-owned companies was done without the involvement of Parliament and therefore exposes the entities to looting.

The article lists comments from Tendai Biti, Nigel Chanakira, Tony Hawkins, Gift Mugano, Welshman Ncube and Victor Nyoni. They have criticized the move as:

  • outside the President’s power’s’
  • enabling the movement outside the country of foreign currency without oversight’ (allows money-laundering),
  • based on misinformation that Zimbabwe has a budget surplus when public debt had increasing to $144 trillion’, “The inclusion of loss-making parastatals is just one more attempt to hide public finances from parliamentary scrutiny and pretend the national budget is in surplus when it is not,”
  • usurping state assets and taking them from the state, because the government owns these parastatals and now Mutapa Investment Fund now owns them temporarily - particularly the government which does not have a clean record of transactions,
  • government has never understood the role of a sovereign wealth fund - to use domestic surpluses from extractive industries like mining, which are depleting national wealth to diversify the economy. Away from dependence on a handful of mineral exports and tobacco. [8]


References

  1. Welshman Ncube Whoswho Southern Africa, Retrieved: June 30, 2014
  2. Welshman Ncube Africa Confidential, Retrieved: June 30, 2014
  3. Ndou Paul, Jacob Zuma's daughter mourns Welshman Ncube's late son, Bulawayo24, Published: July 2, 2012, Retrieved: July 7, 2021
  4. Welshman Ncube bashes wife, The Herald, Published: July 25, 2021, Retrieved: July 7, 2021
  5. Prof Ncube, Henrietta Rushwaya an item?, The Herald, Published: January 22, 2011, Retrieved: July 7, 2021
  6. Ncube elected MDC president New Zimbabwe, Published: January 8, 2011, Retrieved: June 30, 2014
  7. [1] CBZ Sues Welshman Ncube Over $100K Debt, Published: May 26, 2018, Retrieved: May 26 2018, 2014
  8. Mnangagwa’s Mutapa fiasco raises eyebrows, Zimbabwe Situation, Published: 24 September 2023, Retrieved: 29 September 2023

Buy Phones on Credit.

More Deals
Feedback