The current court battle came about when Muganyura, on August 22 this year, cancelled Dr Dish’s licence on the basis that its service provision to the country was illegal.
However, when the matter was urgently heard, Justice Hungwe ruled in favour of Dr Dish, resulting in the pending appeal.A fortnight ago, Dr Dish filed an urgent application seeking leave to execute pending appeal arguing BAZ and Muganyura were simply playing a delaying tactic which would be costly to the independent broadcaster.ECONET Wireless boss Strive Masiyiwa’s Kwese TV yesterday received a major boost after its partner Dr Dish’s application seeking to broadcast pending a Supreme Court appeal by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), was granted by High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe.
Early this month, Dr Dish (Private) Ltd, filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking authority to continue broadcasting after its High Court order was challenged by BAZ chief executive officer Obert Muganyura.
Dr Dish further said prior to being stopped operating it had 24 145 subscribers and when the court ruled in its favour 5 429 more subscribers joined bringing the total number of subscribers to 32 429.
Dr Dish said the violation of its subscribers constitutional rights would be perpetuated if leave to execute pending appeal was not granted on an urgent basis, an argument Justice Hungwe upheld.
In his recent judgement, Justice Hungwe ruled that Muganyura’s decision to cancel Dr Dish’s licence was illegal since he had no authority to make the same decision.
