On 13 January 2000, the High Court of Zimbabwe ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to transmit the National Constitutional Assembly’s (NCA) programmes and advertisements within forty-eight hours. High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee granted the order after a hearing in his chambers which lasted about four hours. The NCA applied to the High Court to […]
On 13 January 2000, the High Court of Zimbabwe ordered the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to transmit the National Constitutional Assembly’s (NCA) programmes and advertisements within forty-eight hours. High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee granted the order after a hearing in his chambers which lasted about four hours.
The NCA applied to the High Court to force the ZBC to broadcast its programmes after the corporation refused to do so, even after being paid Z$901 130 (approx. US$23,713) in fees by the NCA in October of last year. The NCA argued that the ZBC was refusing to air its programmes on
political grounds.
The NCA, an association of civic, human rights and church groups as well as opposition parties, is running a constitutional exercise parallel to the government-appointed constitutional commission. The NCA has also drafted its own proposed constitution for Zimbabwe. Since the Constitutional Commission was appointed in May, the ZBC has gone to great lengths to screen its programmes, in most cases for free. Almost all the Commission’s outreach programmes were aired both on radio and television.
The NCA is arguing that “in light of the forthcoming referendum and elections, it is important that the playing field be levelled so that the NCA and opposition political parties can have access to Zimbabwe’s sole broadcasting station in the same way as the Constitutional Commission and the ruling Zanu PF party”.
Background Information
In January 1999, the NCA tendered the bulk of its advertising material to the ZBC. However, the advertisements were aired for a couple of days and then dropped without explanation. The NCA filed a lawsuit against the ZBC on 25 February, but the case was withdrawn from the High Court when the ZBC pledged to resume airing of the advertisements. In August, when the ZBC had still not aired its advertisements, the NCA threatened to re-institute legal proceedings against the corporation. On 26 August, the NCA wrote a letter to the ZBC’s new director-general, Luke Munyawarara, giving the ZBC seventy-two hours to resume broadcasting its advertisements. The current case was initiated as a result of the ZBC’s non-compliance with this ultimatum.
