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Judge postpones application by journalists on legality of MIC
MISA-Zimbabwe
June 04, 2009

High court judge, Justice Bharat Patel on 4 June 2009, postponed the urgent application by journalists challenging the legality of the Media Information Commission (MIC) to 5 June 2009 at 1200 hours after the counsel for both the applicants and the respondents consented to the postponement.

Mrs Mabhiza was representing the first, second and fourth respondents namely, Webster Shamu, George Charamba, and Morgan Tsvangirai, while Mercy Chizodza appeared for the third respondent Tafataona Mahoso.

Mabhiza argued that she needed more time to enable her to get instructions from her clients since she had not been able to get hold of them after receiving instructions to represent them around midday.

On the other hand, Chizodza also pleaded for more time with the court noting the same reasons although she also added that most of the administrative staff from MIC were unavailable as they had already traveled for the Common Market for East and Southern Africa summit (COMESA).

Asked to respond Mr Selby Hwacha, counsel for the applicants said that he had no problem with a postponement to 5 June 2009 as long as the application could be heard in time to enable his clients to travel before the conference by the heads of state convened.

However before deferring the matter, Justice Patel quizzed the counsel for the respondents as to whether a postponement would serve any purpose to the applicants given the urgency of the application and the fact that the Summit had already commenced.

The judge also enquired whether the arguments for the respondents would be legal or factual stating that the latter had no relevance to the proceedings as the question was whether the statement published in The Herald of 2 June 2009 regarding status of the MIC was either correct or incorrect at law.

He later ruled that the matter be postponed to 5 June 2009 and be heard without regard to whether or not the counsel for respondents would have received instructions by then.

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