Judgment No. CCZ 14/2016113
Const. Application No. CCZ 67/13
misplaced remedy because those provJsJons had no direct relationship with the bias in the
programme by the ZBC which she is complaining about.
As a law of general application, the provisions the validity of which is impugned
limit the applicant's right not to be compulsorily deprived of property except by a law which
meets the conditions set out ins 71(3)(b)(i) or (ii) of the Constitution. They do so only for the
reason that as a law of taxation they cannot contain the terms required under s 71(3)(c)-(e) of the
Constitution as no compensation is payable for taxation.
Disguising an attack on the validity of conduct as an attack on the
constitutionality of legislation governing that conduct cannot save the applicant from the
requirements of the principle of subsidiarity. What the applicant is complaining about is the
alleged violation of the right to fair and unbiased administrative conduct by the ZBC. That right
is protected by para. (d) of Part 1 of the Seventh Schedule as read with s 3 of the Administrative
Justice Act. The Administrative Justice Act provides the remedy for the enforcement of the
protection of the right in question.
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. Two wrongs never make a right. Both conducts infringe the law. There
is no doubt that a person who deliberately refuses to fulfil an obligation backed by criminal law
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