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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter

THE Constitutional Court has dismissed with costs, a case in which Harare West legislator Ms Jessie Majome was contesting payment of listener’s licence fees to ZBC.Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with eight other judges of the Constitutional Court, found that Ms Majome approached the wrong court because there were laws in existence that protect her rights that she felt were being violated.

The conduct complained of, the court ruled, was not a constitutional issue.

“The conduct complained of does not give rise to a constitutional issue at all. Where a law of general application prohibits conduct, the breach of such law does not give rise to a constitutional question.

“The question of legality of the conduct is determined on the basis of the interpretation and application of the statutory provision prohibiting the conduct unless the constitutionality of the statutory provision itself is challenged.

“Bias is a well-known ground for review of the administrative conduct in administrative law,” the court ruled.

The court blasted Ms Majome for abusing the court process and deliberately breaking the law.

“It must be said that the applicant’s conduct of deliberately refusing to pay the licence fee for possessing a television set remains a criminal offence notwithstanding the attempt to justify the offence on account of the alleged biased programming by the public broadcaster in favour of Zanu-PF.

“Wrongful conduct on the part of the public broadcaster cannot justify her own criminal conduct,” ruled the court.

In her challenge, Ms Majome argued that instead of being a public broadcaster, ZBC was being biased towards Zanu-PF and that it was not giving political parties equal coverage.

She felt that Sections 38 (b) (2), 38(c) and 38(d) (1-4) of the Broadcasting Service Act that compels people to pay for the licences and holds defaulters liable for prosecution should be removed from the statutes because they violate the people’s rights.

Ms Majome further argued that ZBC was not serving the national interests, but interests of Zanu-PF, hence viewers and listeners were being forced to be associated with Zanu-PF even if they did not like the party. The legislator, who has a pending case of failing to produce a television licence to the police, is also seeking permanent stay of her prosecution.

She argued that non-payment of the fees should not be taken as a criminal offence.

Responding to the application, Government dismissed the application as mischievous, saying the obligation to pay the fees was the same as that of paying tax.

In the heads of argument filed at the Constitutional Court by Mambosasa Legal Practitioners on behalf of the Attorney General, the Minister of Information, Media and Publicity, ZBC and the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, it is argued that Ms Majome’s claims of bias had not been proven and that it was only her own belief that the national broadcaster was biased.

According to the heads of argument, ZBC is a national broadcaster and licence fees were permissible at law. It is Government’s contention that Ms Majome was approaching the court with dirty hands by openly refusing to pay the listener’s licence fees for two years.

The Government lawyers urged the court to dismiss the application with costs on a higher scale, saying courts must not be abused by politicians as a platform to gain cheap publicity or to score political points.