HARARE – Self-styled interim CCC secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu has withdrawn his Supreme Court appeal against a High Court judgement which nullified his controversial changes to the main opposition party’s leadership structure in parliament.
Parties had met at the Supreme Court to hear the appeal on Monday but Tshabangu then tendered a notice of withdrawal.
This development means the High Court’s decision now stands.
Tshabangu was recently ordered to stop the recalls by the High Court which also ruled he was in breach of an existing ruling.
The ruling came after an urgent application filed by CCC acting president Welshman Ncube, who argued that not only did Tshabangu not have authority to reassign MPs but he was in fact carrying out back-door recalls he had been barred from doing by an earlier High Court judgement.
Justice Neville Wamambo of the Harare High Court agreed with Ncube’s contention that Tshabangu’s decision to remove Lynette Karenyi-Kore, Sessel Zvidzai and Edwin Mushoriwa from the parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders (CSRO) amounted to recalls.
The judge also said the position of opposition chief whip to which Nonhlanhla Mlotshwa had been appointed by Tshabangu did not exist under Zimbabwe’s constitution.
Following the latest development, CCC said its members who were reshuffled will be going back to their original positions.
“The removal of Hon Lynette Karenyi and Hon Edwin Mushoriwa from their membership of the SROC in their ex official capacities as leader of the opposition in the National Assemble being unlawful and ultra vires the Constitution of Zimbabwe is null and void. Accordingly the two remain in their positions.
“The appointment of Nonhlanhla Mlostswa as overall chief whip is unlawful and a legal nullify and of no force or effect,” said CCC in a statement.
Tshabangu, styling himself as CCC secretary general, wreaked havoc on the party after elections in August 2023 when he recalled dozens of elected party representatives from both parliament and councils.
The CCC filed a court application under case number HC 6872/23 in October 2023 arguing that Tshabangu was an imposter who had no authority to make the recalls which triggered some by-elections in affected constituencies. That case is pending.
The CCC then obtained an order granted by Justice Tawanda Chitapi interdicting Tshabangu from making any further recalls until the determination of the main matter on whether he had a legal basis to initiate the recalls in the first place. It is this order on which the present application by Ncube hinged.
