From Zimbabwe Daily News
High Court bars MDC rally
17/2/2003 7:16:46 AM (GMT +2)
From Chris Gande in Bulawayo
THE High Court in Bulawayo last Friday barred the MDC from holding a rally that was to be addressed by the opposition party's president, Morgan Tsvangirai, at White City Stadium.
The party's vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, and secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, were also billed as speakers at the rally.
Tsvangirai was expected to address the party supporters on the economic issues affecting the country and the way forward.
Justice Misheck Cheda made the ruling on Friday night after an urgent chamber application by the MDC, following police refusal to sanction the rally under the Public Order and Security Act.
The police had denied the party permission to hold the rally citing lack of adequate manpower due to the World Cup Cricket games being staged in the city.
The England cricket team has refused to play in Zimbabwe, citing lack of security and the country's poor human rights record as some of the reasons.
In his ruling, Cheda upheld the police concerns that sanctioning the rally would prejudice the security concerns of the World Cup Cricket games organisers.
But despite the reported shortage of manpower as a reason for refusing to sanction the rally, there was a heavy police presence at the stadium on Saturday morning.
Riot police patrolled Pelandaba suburb apparently to ensure that MDC supporters did not defy the order.
Some party youths had indicated that they were going to disregard the order and would converge on the venue of the rally in their hundreds.
Later in the afternoon, at the scheduled time of the rally, there was a heavy downpour which put paid to any efforts by the MDC supporters to defy the High Court order. Victor Moyo, the MDC's Bulawayo provincial spokesman, yesterday said: "The people of Bulawayo have been denied the opportunity to hear their leaders speak."
Yesterday, Tsvangirai would not say whether the rally would be rescheduled to another date after the Cricket World Cup games.
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