It is with great surprise that I have seen a report in the Chronicle suggesting that the provisional order in the High Court Application made of the Confederated Retailers Association and others v The MDC Alliance and the Officer Commanding and another was granted.

This is a shameless lie by the Government machine. The order was not granted and was dismissed.

Event though the wording of the order made by the judge in chambers yesterday in the High Court order is vague erroneous what is reported by the Chronicle is a outright false.

The court order itself does not reflect the what was conceded by the Applicants ; that their application was without merit and must be dismissed since it was not within the powers of the High Court to grant such an order and the police had in any event made and served a prohibition order.

In fact, the issue related to costs was debated precisely because the MDC Alliance ,through me , had requested that since the application was so palpably bad in its conception and even in terms of drafting that it should be dismissed with costs.

That the wording of the judgment is so jumbled up has been taken up by the ZANU PF spin machine to shamessly give the impression that the demonstration set for today has been blocked by the High Court.

This is a big lie that misreads the badly drafted order and is the opposite of what the court really ordered.

I would urge the public, on behalf of my client , to disregard the reports suggesting that the demonstration has been blocked by a court order as this could not be further from the truth.

Issued by

Adv.K.I. Phulu