However, in 2017, the ministry’s permanent secretary, George Charamba, was to bizarrely claim by implication, that the government had licensed community radio stations, in apparent reference to the afore-mentioned commercial radio stations. Community radio stations by definition are not for commercial profit. In any case, the fact of the matter is the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe has not called for applications for community radio stations, let alone licensing a single one, as provided for in terms of the BSA. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), which is supposed to be a public broadcaster, firmly remained in the clutches of the state and continued with its partisan coverage to the exclusion of diverse views and opinions. This is despite assertions to the contrary by the then Minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Christopher Mushowe, relating to ZBC’s impartiality. Mushowe was responding to questions raised by parliamentarians on 2 August 2017 relating to ZBC’s programming and its 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 said Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties should inform the public broadcaster when they have programmes that need coverage. He said ZBC was ready to cover ‘any worthy’ programmes or activities by the opposition and that this was already happening. However, ZBC’s partisanship and biased coverage is well documented. Reports by civil society organisations such as Media Monitors Zimbabwe (formerly Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe), and Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), attest to ZBC’s inequitable and biased coverage of political parties, especially during elections. Observations by the Constitutional Court in July 2016 when it affirmed the legality of ZBC licence fees, are 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 committees; even the ministry’s very own sanctioned Information and Media Panel of Inquiry, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s 2013 report and elections observer missions, have repeatedly pointed out 12