By Staff Reporter
EXILED former Information minister Jonathan Moyo— himself once an architect of draconian media laws— has conceded that the latest legislation requiring motorists to pay a Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) licence fee before acquiring road authority and insurance fees was not in sync with technological advancements.
This is despite the illegality of the entire law, which is based on its discriminatory nature.
Moyo, who fled Zimbabwe in 2017 at the height of the military coup that removed former President Robert Mugabe from power and subsequently saw President Emmerson Mnangagwa rise to leadership two weeks later after being dismissed as Vice President by Mugabe, launched a scathing attack on Mnangagwa.
Since the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) Amendment Bill was signed into law earlier this week, Zimbabweans have expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the new legislation, particularly clause 15, which mandates that motorists must pay the ZBC licence fee — without which they cannot purchase their ZINARA vehicle licence and insurance.
Moyo, who had grown cautious about openly attacking Mnangagwa on platforms like X and in interviews with regional and international news organisations over the past two years, has now waded back into the debate around the ZBC licence fee for motorists.
“Basically, the revolution in digital technologies has outdated car radio licences, which is why they have been vacated worldwide,” Moyo wrote on X on Friday.
He added that Mnangagwa’s government still has an opportunity to repeal the new law, as it is outdated and has been overtaken by technological progress.
“In this connection, the Second Republic had, and still has, an opportunity to repeal the 2001 car radio fee as an outdated, no longer necessary, inconvenient, now unreasonable, and unfair tax burden,” Moyo said.
He further commented: “The challenge for a broadcasting licence fee nowadays is how to structure it, perhaps as a tax, taking into account the rapid and massive technological and social transformation taking place.”
Moyo implored Mnangagwa to hit the brakes on implementing the controversial law, arguing it must be revised through a digital lens.
“It would be in both the public and national interest to pause the implementation of the car radio licence in order not only to rethink it; but to also review the very idea of a radio and television licence in a digital world; with a view to coming up with a more suitable and modernised, user-friendly, alternative model of a single and comprehensive broadcasting licence fee model,” he said.