Soon after Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition party was taken ill in a South African hospital, the High Court in Bulawayo granted the party permission to stage its planned demonstration in the city.
The protest, to be led by party president Morgan Tsvangirai, is slated for May 28. The MDC-T is using the demonstration to push the ruling party to avail the 2.2 million jobs it dangled to the electorate in the last elections.After, police refused to allow the planned protests, the opposition party approached the High Court on Tuesday with an urgent chamber application.
The court granted the application saying the police, under the country's' new constitution, have no right to bar anyone from staging a demonstration.
The party's legal representative, Kholwani Ngwenya, told journalists that the court had seen no reason to stop the planned protest. "The judge agreed with us that such conduct by the police is unreasonable and it is an infringement on the people's rights to freely demonstrate and petition peacefully," said Ngwenya.
MDC-T Bulawayo provincial vice spokesperson Felix Mafa commended the High Court for the decision and castigated the police for what he said was their failure to understand the country's laws.
"The judgement has two important lessons; that our judges are impartial and are independent because police officers in Zimbabwe are pressurising the judges to do otherwise.
"We are so excited that our members and peaceful civil society and other friendly political parties are going to join our peaceful demonstration on 28 May," said Mafa.
Last month, MDC-T also had to approach the High Court after the police had initially banned its planned Harare demonstrations. The demonstration was later cleared and attracted thousands of party supporters led by their long-time leader. - Source - Tinzwei.com
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