Welshman Ncube

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Welshman Ncube (born July 7, 1961) is a Zimbabwean politician and a leading member of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change. He has been a member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for Bulawayo North East since the 2000 elections. Ncube is an academic lawyer who has been Professor of Law at the University of Zimbabwe from 1992 and Secretary-General of the MDC from 1999.

In 2002 Ncube was one 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. Within the MDC, rumours were circulated that Ncube was in some way connected to the decision by the Zimbabwe government to start the prosecution in order to destabilise the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai. However Ncube was strongly attacked by media outlets close to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front party in 2004.

When the Senate of Zimbabwe was created in 2005, Ncube was part of the faction in the MDC under Gibson Sibanda which supported participation in the elections. After the MDC National Council voted narrowly to take part in the elections, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai expelled the selected candidates from the party and suspended Ncube pending disciplinary hearings at the MDC congress in February 2006. A recent press release from the MDC states "CIO in the thick of things as Welshman camp is reported to have been bought off with a mere 20 Billion Zimbabwe kwachas...."

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 programme. [1] As he was still MDC Secretary-General, it was Ncube's faction who received $ 8 billion (about $ 500,000 in United States dollars) under the Zimbabwe system of state funding for political parties in February 2006. On February 25, Ncube's faction met in congress in Bulawayo and appointed Arthur Mutambara as its new President.