The Zimbabwean witnessed the incident. An angry tenant, only identified as Teketeke, sparked the drama after his lodgings were invaded by three licensing officials who demanded that he pay them the $50 television viewers’ license fee. He refused to pay.
“I pay $75 to DSTV, which then pays you because you are also on DSTV,” charged Teketeke before ordering the officials to vacate his lodgings. They were met by other residents outside the gate, who demanded that they vacate the area immediately.
The embarrassed ZBC officials made a report at Warren Park Police station, accusing some Westlea residents of politically insulting them, charges which the residents dismissed as trumped up.
“It’s rubbish, we simply told them we can’t pay for what we do not want. We hate watching old Chipangano women dancing, displaying their bottoms without shame on national television,” said Mike Chirwa, one of the Westlea residents.
“If ZBC wants us to pay they should do like all international TV channels and cut us off if we are not subscribed to them. Their charges are too high, we can only pay them $2 a month for the poor programs they give us,” said another angry resident, Trymore Chigwada.
Police provincial spokesperson for Harare Province Tedious Chibanda could neither deny nor confirm the incident. “I have not yet received any report about this,” he said.
Many Zimbabweans refuse to pay the ZBC radio and TV licenses of $30 and $50 respectively, claiming that programming is poor and biased, and also that most people cannot afford the fees because of economic challenges.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology, Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya said ZBC was a partisan broadcaster.
“If it is to be a public broadcaster in its true sense, it should serve the public interest. But people will be jailed if we do not change the law, especially the clause that makes it mandatory to license a broadcasting gadget, meaning you can be jailed for possessing a cellphone or laptop without a radio license,” Chikwinya said.
Post published in: News