Zimbabwe Mushowe was responding to questions raised by parliamentarians on 2 August 2017 related to ZBC’s programming and licence fees. Harare West MP, Jessie Majome, asked the minister whether it was ZBC’s editorial policy to ‘favour’ the ruling Zanu PF against other political parties. In his response, the minister deferred the question by saying Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties should inform the public broadcaster when they had events that needed coverage. He maintained that the ZBC was ready to cover ‘any worthy’ activities of the opposition and that this was in fact already happening. However, in contrast to the then Minister’s statement, ZBC’s partisanship and biased coverage has been welldocumented. Reports by civil society organisations such as Media Monitors Zimbabwe (formerly Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe), and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, attest to ZBC’s inequitable and biased coverage of political parties, especially during elections. Observations made by the Constitutional Court in July 2016 when it affirmed the legality of ZBC licence fees, were also telling in that regard. The court stressed the need for ZBC to be impartial and afford fair opportunity for presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions. Several reports, including those by relevant Parliamentary Portfolio Committees; even the ministry’s very own sanctioned IMPI, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s 2013 report and elections observer missions, repeatedly pointed out ZBC’s deficiencies as a public broadcaster due to its political capture and abuse by the ruling party and government. As the print media struggled for survival and solutions against the background of unfolding technological advances, compounded by dwindling advertising revenue in an unfavourable economic environment, it also came under the spotlight following accusations of its capture, particularly in the context of the ruling Zanu PF succession fights. Without its transformation, ZBC as currently constituted, cannot objectively and impartially evaluate the ‘worthiness’ of activities of opposition political parties to determine coverage, as was posited by the minister. The ZBC, nevertheless, has statutory obligations to exercise editorial discretion and judgments in the public interest. So This is Democracy? 2017 141