Judgment No. CCZ 9/2016 14 Const. Application No. CCZ 316/2012 On the question whether the compulsory contribution is imposed by the legislature or other competent authority, the applicants’ position was that it is the ZBC that exacts the licence fee. Mr Mpofu argued that as the ZBC was incorporated in terms of the Companies Act [Cap. 24:03] it is a private company carrying on the business of providing broadcasting service. He argued that a provision of a law which gives a private company power to fix and collect licence fees to raise funds for its own operations is not a law in respect of taxation. According to Mr Mpofu, the purpose of the provisions of the Act the validity of which is challenged is to give the ZBC an unfair financial advantage over other competitors in the business of providing broadcasting services. Mr Musarurwa for the respondents argued that notwithstanding its incorporation in terms of the Companies Act, the ZBC is a “public broadcaster”. The effect of Mr Musarurwa’s argument is that the ZBC is a “public broadcaster” because the statute in terms of which its incorporation was authorised says it is a “public broadcaster”. The argument by the applicants is misplaced. The obligation to pay the licence fee is imposed by the Legislature on every person who possesses a receiver. It is the Legislature that exercised its wide discretion to select possession of a receiver as the subject for the purposes of imposing the obligation to pay the money on all persons who get to be in control of a receiver. The fact that the Legislature gave the ZBC the power to fix the value of the obligation with the approval of the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the President’s Office (“the Minister”) by a statutory instrument does not make the ZBC the legislative authority. The