Court okays MDC Bulawayo demo

By Jeffrey Muvundusi

The High Court here has given the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC the green light to hold their planned May 28 protest against President Robert Mugabe’s alleged misrule.

This comes after police had banned the demo arguing the previous march in Harare had turned violent, among other reasons.

The MDC filed an urgent chamber application on Tuesday seeking to interdict the police from interfering with its protest.

Yesterday, High Court Judge Martin Makonese ruled in favour of the opposition party.

“The judge granted the order as per our request that the march should go ahead on May 28 and that the police should not interfere or disrupt the march,” MDC lawyer Kholwani Ngwenya of Mabhikwa and Partners told the Daily News.

“The judge also said that the conduct by the police is unreasonable and an infringement of our rights. So, they should be allowed to demonstrate and petition peacefully.”

An ecstatic MDC provincial deputy spokesperson Felix Mafa said: “We are very excited that as Bulawayo we are going to have more than 20 000 people demonstrating peacefully with marshals to prevent infiltrators.

“It also means our judges are independent and we are happy about that. This is a warning shot to the police who want to interpret the law otherwise.

“The law is clear. According to the draconian law which is Posa, you don’t apply but notify the police, but it’s always misinterpreted. The police are very intransigent to the peaceful existence of our people.” Daily News