MultiChoice is being sued by a Zimbabwe lawyer, asking the country's high court to compel the satellite pay-TV service to accept other forms of payment besides American dollar as more and more cash-strapped Zimbabweans are struggling to pay their DStv subscriptions.
The past few months have been extremely tough on MultiChoice Zimbabwe as well as on DStv subscribers in Zimbabwe after the Zimbabean government, through Zimbabwe's reserve bank, has started to put the squeeze on pay-TV subscribers that it blames for Zimbabwe's worsening foreign reserves and forex outflows.
Zimbabwe has added DStv subscribers in the struggling Southern African country to the list of "evil-doers" supposedly damaging its economy with their "illogical behaviour", since they're paying for television services in dollar that flows out of the country, instead of buying - as the reserve bank recommends - "raw material to make cooking oil for the nation".
Almost all payment options for DStv subscribers in Zimbabwe have now disappeared with payment processing providers announcing one after the other that they simply can't continue to process DStv payments that must be made in American dollar.
As it became more difficult for DStv subscribers to make payments, the forex clampdown has been having a devastating effect on MultiChoice Zimbabwe the past 5 months with the Zimbabwean operation of MultiChoice Africa that is operated as a franchise in the southern African country.
In July, MultiChoice Zimbabwe in a statement said that DStv services are not being suspended and that all the DStv bouquets remain available. What MultiChoice Zimbabwe isn't saying, is how ordinary Zimbabwe citizens are expected to pay for their DStv in the face of dwindling payment options.
Zimbabwe's Herald newspaper reports that the Harare lawyer James Majatame is now taking MultiChoice Zimbabwe, run by Skynet Private Limited, to court, to compel the pay-TV provider to accept other forms of payment.
He wants DStv Zimbabwe to accept bank card payments, EcoCash transfers, bank transfers and bond notes as payment for DStv subscriptions and filed a court application on Wednesday in Harare.
In the application James Majatame alleges that "MultiChoice's conduct of refusing to accept subscriptions by way of swipe, EcoCash, bank transfer, bond notes and coins, preferring United States dollar only, is unlawful."
"Cash in US dollar is now a scare commodity. The conduct by the respondent of demanding US dollars only for its DStv services promotes black market [illegal trade], which is more averse to our country and economy".
