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ZBH license fees: A cause for concern
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
March 12, 2009

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) is deeply concerned by the exorbitant license fees that have been pegged by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) for the year 2009. ZBH, with the approval of the Ministry of Information and Publicity has released a notice in terms of section 38B (2) of the Broadcasting Services Act [Chapter 12:06] citing the new Listeners' license fees where radio listeners in the rural areas are expected to pay as much as US$10 (ZAR100) while those in urban areas will be expected to part with US$20 (ZAR200) per annum. Below is a summary of the notice released by ZBH.

(a) Listeners' licence (sound-rural), US$10 (ZAR100);

(b) Listeners' licence (sound-urban), US$20 (ZAR200);

(c) Listeners' licence (sound and television), US$50 (ZAR500);

(d) Listeners' licence (sound-business premises), US$50 (ZAR500);

(e) Listeners' licence (television-business premises), US$100 (ZAR1000);

(f) Listeners' licence (sound-private vehicle), US$30 (300);

(g) Listeners' licence (sound-employer-owned vehicle), US$80 (ZAR800);

(h) Listeners' licence (sound and television vehicle), US$100 (ZAR1000);

These license fees are too high and they only serve to marginalise residents from getting broadcasting services as they are beyond the affordability of many. Other national broadcasters in the Southern Africa Region draw most of their revenue from advertisers and this lightens the burden on listeners and viewers. In South Africa, for example, the government subsidises the costs of its national broadcaster, SABC and residents only have to pay television license fees of ZAR225 per annum (while in Zimbabwe residents have to pay a whopping ZAR500). Unlike ZBH, SABC and other broadcasters rely on advertisers because they have explored ways to improve the quality of their programmes in order to attract advertisers. In Botswana, only broadcasters pay license fees while viewers and listeners get these services for free.

This is not so with the Zimbabwean national broadcaster, ZBH. The previous government heavily polarized the programmes that were being aired both on radio and television and turned the national broadcaster into a political mouthpiece that focused on propagating State propaganda. The '100% local content' campaign saw ZBH broadcasting stale programmes of the liberation war struggle and political talk shows; a situation that repelled many advertisers from conducting business transactions with the national broadcaster and thereby depleting its revenue base. Moreover, most of radio and television owners purchased satellite decoders to get access to other broadcasters outside Zimbabwe. Thus advertisers lost their market and cut their ties with ZBH.

CHRA feels that ZBH should first conduct a market research to find out what residents want on their television sets and revamp its programming in order to attract and regain the confidence of advertisers so as to get revenue. The license fees that are being charged by ZBH do not correspond with the services that the national broadcaster is giving to residents. For example, the issue of cholera has not been adequately covered by ZBH (except for the adverts that are being flighted by UNICEF). At one time, residents complained that the cholera statistics that were being released by the national broadcaster were being censored and that they did not reflect the true picture and the gravity of the cholera crisis in Harare and the nation as a whole. ZBH has not owned up to the residents in terms of providing quality entertainment neither as most programmes are being repeated and they focus on State propaganda.

It should be noted that residents also have to deal with other utility bills from the City Council, ZESA, Tel One and ZINWA. CHRA urges the inclusive government to intervene in this situation where service providers seek to clear their deficits by imposing exorbitant service charges on residents. The Association is cognizant of the fact that the government allowed the use of foreign currency in order to curb inflation but there is a danger of the worsening of this situation if service providers are allowed to charge residents anyhow. Taking into consideration the fact that service providers like Tel One are serving residents with bills that amount to as much as US$500 (ZAR5000), there is a possibility that an average resident would have to budget for at least US$1000 (ZAR10 000) to pay utility bills every month which is outside the income brackets of most people. Moreover, residents in rural areas cannot afford to pay ZAR100 as license fees as most of them do not have any formal sources of income.

CHRA urges other Residents Associations around Zimbabwe and concerned stakeholders to lobby for the provision of affordable services to residents. CHRA will continue to advocate for good, transparent and accountable governance as well as lobbying for the provision of quality and affordable municipal (and other) services.

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