Television and radio listeners are outrage by the astronomical licence fees, in foreign currency, demanded by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) whose programming still leaves a lot to be desired, writes John Mokwetsi in The Standard.


ZBH, with the approval of the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity has released new licence fees that will see radio listeners in the rural areas paying US$10 while those in urban areas would fork out US$50 every year.

Those who own vehicles will have to part with $30 for radio while those who have both radio and television receivers would be charged an unrealistic $100 a year.

The charges are way above what other African countries with better radio and television services are charging.

South Africa charges $25, Namibia $30, Mauritius $37 and for Ghana it is even as low as $3.80 a year.

In neighbouring Botswana, only broadcasters pay licence fees while viewers and listeners get these services for free.

The Combined Harare Residents' Association in a statement said the licence fees were too high and would only serve to prevent the majority of residents from getting broadcasting services.

"Other national broadcasters in the Southern Africa region draw most of their revenue from advertisers and this lightens the burden on listeners and viewers," the association said.

Click here to read the full report, posted on The Standard's website.