Welshman Ncube

Welshman Ncube (born July 7, 1961) is a Zimbabwean politician and the Secretary-General of the faction [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-zimbabwe19sep19,1,748817.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true Zimbabwe's rulers accept limited preelection reforms - Los Angeles Times ] ] of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Arthur Mutambara. He was elected as a member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for Bulawayo North East in the 2000 election and served in the House of Assembly until 2008,when he lost the election. Ncube is an academic lawyer who has been Professor of Law at the University of Zimbabwe from 1992.

He has a BL (Bachelor of Law) LLB (Bachelor of Laws) and an MPhil (Law) degrees from the University of Zimbabwe. His MPhil thesis was on Zimbabwean Customary Law focusing on Family Law.

In 1997 Ncube bought 30 square kilometres of land with the intention of developing it as a farm. The land had not previously been farmed and was subsequently discovered to have been seized from ZAPU supporters in 1982. Ncube was accused in 2006 of having profited from the Zimbabwe government's land transfer program. [http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13639] In 2002 Ncube was one of three MDC MPs to be charged with high treason over an alleged plot to assassinate Robert Mugabe, but like the others was found not guilty.

Ncube was part of the faction in the MDC under Gibson Sibanda which supported participation in the first elections in 2005 for the Senate of Zimbabwe. This faction is the smaller of the two. The MDC National Council voted to take part in the elections, MDC leader Tsvangirai tried to expel the selected candidates from the party and suspended Ncube pending disciplinary hearings at the MDC congress in February 2006, but failed because he could not do so constitutionally. Ncube's group met in congress in Bulawayo and chose Arthur Mutambara as its new President.

On June 16 2007 Ncube and Tendai Biti, Secretary General of the MDC Tsvangirai faction, met with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Labor Minister Nicholas Goche, in Pretoria, South Africa. South African President Thabo Mbeki, appointed by the Southern African Development Community, presided over the negotiations, which sought to end economic sanctions on Zimbabwe. [http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-06-16-voa11.cfm Zimbabwe police seize opposition leader's passport] , VOA News, June 16, 2007.]

Ncube ran as the MDC Mutambara faction's candidate in Makokoba constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election, but he placed second behind Thokozani Khupe, the Vice-President of the Tsvangirai faction. He received 2,475 votes against 4,123 votes for Khupe. [ [http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/electoral203.17984.html "Zimbabwe election results 2008"] , newzimbabwe.com.]

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