The Sunday Mail
SINCE Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute committed the heresy of declaring President Mugabe and Zanu-PF were the most popular and credible political actors in Zimbabwe at the beginning of May, we have been subjected to the kind of denialism that the opposition in this country have mastered over the past 15-odd years.
The researchers — who have been known to be used to prop-up Morgan Tsvangirai’s unviable project in the past — said their findings showed President Mugabe enjoyed 70 percent of the trust of the rural electorate. He also has the trust of 45 percent of their urban counterparts.
This more or less tallies with the outcome of the 2013 elections, in which he crushed Tsvangirai.
The survey also said, overall, the opposition was trusted by 34 percent of Zimbabweans. That is a wide margin by any measure, a margin so wide that even the lunatic fringe in the private media has failed to paper over in their usual glib but guileless manner.
In the same way the lunatic fringe rejects the results of the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey when it tells them the majority simply prefer Zimpapers products to their own, they reject self-evident truths such as President Mugabe’s popularity. In 2013, like now, the cry by those that would love to see President Mugabe leave office by any means whatsoever has been that the results were rigged.
Well, enough has already been said about that lunacy, and we will not waste ink and paper pointing out the obvious fact that President Mugabe is a popular man.
Just as in 2013, there was no mythical and childish “nikuving” or whatever it is the lunatic fringe would like to call it to ease the terrible fear in their miserable little hearts and to calm the mad voices rattling in their largely empty heads. Rather, our concern is about what the people of Zimbabwe say about President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
This is only natural because President Mugabe’s show is the only genuine game in town.
But there is more to our concern than just that. While Zanu-PF has been happy to point out that it has more support than the opposition political parties, we tend to wonder if it has asked itself one crucial question that arises from the survey.
That question has to do with the significant disparity between President Muagbe’s popularity and trust rating and that of the ruling party as an organisation.
Zanu-PF should be asking itself why Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute found that President Mugabe’s approval level was, across urban and rural areas, pegged at 63 percent while that of the party was down at 54 percent.
The temptation for the ruling party could be to take comfort in the fact that approval is above 50 percent.
But it should be cause for concern when the populace tells you that your leader has a better integrity perception than the organisation he leads.
For us, it points to something important that needs fixing.
And that “something important” could be found in the manner in which the party as an organisation conducts itself in comparison to the standards it sets for itself.
Those standards are derived from the values, ideology and indeed electoral promises that the party itself trumpets.
This means the people of Zimbabwe generally see President Mugabe living up to those values, ideology and electoral promises than Zanu-PF as an organisation does.
We simply have to look at the way party leaders conduct themselves on even the most rudimentary of issues.
We have people like Cde Phillip Chiyangwa, a Central Committee member, bragging about not stopping when the police of our republic ask him to do so.
We can also look at how party leaders conduct themselves when more serious issues arise.
We have Politburo members seeking to overturn the outcomes of duly constituted primary elections so that a candidate is imposed on the electorate.
It is this mix of arrogance on minor and major issues by some in the party’s leadership that contributes to it have a lower trust-ability rating than President Mugabe.
And this is dangerous for the party, as it should have learnt in 2008 and, more importantly, in the lead-up to the 2014 National Congress when we saw chaos at the Youth and Women’s leagues congresses.
The people watch how their leaders behave, and they react accordingly come elections.
President Mugabe walks the talk. Zanu-PF should do more of the same.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Zanu-PF, the people are watching
The Sunday Mail
SINCE Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute committed the heresy of declaring President Mugabe and Zanu-PF were the most popular and credible political actors in Zimbabwe at the beginning of May, we have been subjected to the kind of denialism that the opposition in this country have mastered over the past 15-odd years.
The researchers — who have been known to be used to prop-up Morgan Tsvangirai’s unviable project in the past — said their findings showed President Mugabe enjoyed 70 percent of the trust of the rural electorate. He also has the trust of 45 percent of their urban counterparts.
This more or less tallies with the outcome of the 2013 elections, in which he crushed Tsvangirai.
The survey also said, overall, the opposition was trusted by 34 percent of Zimbabweans. That is a wide margin by any measure, a margin so wide that even the lunatic fringe in the private media has failed to paper over in their usual glib but guileless manner.
In the same way the lunatic fringe rejects the results of the Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey when it tells them the majority simply prefer Zimpapers products to their own, they reject self-evident truths such as President Mugabe’s popularity. In 2013, like now, the cry by those that would love to see President Mugabe leave office by any means whatsoever has been that the results were rigged.
Well, enough has already been said about that lunacy, and we will not waste ink and paper pointing out the obvious fact that President Mugabe is a popular man.
Just as in 2013, there was no mythical and childish “nikuving” or whatever it is the lunatic fringe would like to call it to ease the terrible fear in their miserable little hearts and to calm the mad voices rattling in their largely empty heads. Rather, our concern is about what the people of Zimbabwe say about President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
This is only natural because President Mugabe’s show is the only genuine game in town.
But there is more to our concern than just that. While Zanu-PF has been happy to point out that it has more support than the opposition political parties, we tend to wonder if it has asked itself one crucial question that arises from the survey.
That question has to do with the significant disparity between President Muagbe’s popularity and trust rating and that of the ruling party as an organisation.
Zanu-PF should be asking itself why Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute found that President Mugabe’s approval level was, across urban and rural areas, pegged at 63 percent while that of the party was down at 54 percent.
The temptation for the ruling party could be to take comfort in the fact that approval is above 50 percent.
But it should be cause for concern when the populace tells you that your leader has a better integrity perception than the organisation he leads.
For us, it points to something important that needs fixing.
And that “something important” could be found in the manner in which the party as an organisation conducts itself in comparison to the standards it sets for itself.
Those standards are derived from the values, ideology and indeed electoral promises that the party itself trumpets.
This means the people of Zimbabwe generally see President Mugabe living up to those values, ideology and electoral promises than Zanu-PF as an organisation does.
We simply have to look at the way party leaders conduct themselves on even the most rudimentary of issues.
We have people like Cde Phillip Chiyangwa, a Central Committee member, bragging about not stopping when the police of our republic ask him to do so.
We can also look at how party leaders conduct themselves when more serious issues arise.
We have Politburo members seeking to overturn the outcomes of duly constituted primary elections so that a candidate is imposed on the electorate.
It is this mix of arrogance on minor and major issues by some in the party’s leadership that contributes to it have a lower trust-ability rating than President Mugabe.
And this is dangerous for the party, as it should have learnt in 2008 and, more importantly, in the lead-up to the 2014 National Congress when we saw chaos at the Youth and Women’s leagues congresses.
The people watch how their leaders behave, and they react accordingly come elections.
President Mugabe walks the talk. Zanu-PF should do more of the same.
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