Despite signalling a crisis, 51% vouch for Mnangagwa…as Police are ranked most corrupt again!

Raymond Zarurai
Notwithstanding the consistent spike in the number of people who think the country has been going in the wrong direction since 2017 when the Mnangagwa administration was delegated and later elected into office, a round 9 survey by Afrobarometer has concluded that 51% of the respondents still trust President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The survey established that an average of 72% of Zimbabweans thought the country has been heading in the wrong direction an increase from 2021 (67% ), 2018 (62%) and 2017 (60%).
“The view that the country is heading the wrong direction is particularly common among urban residents (79%), poor citizens (87%), and respondents with secondary (75%) or post-secondary (77%) education,” said Afrobarometer in a news release.
The results have sparked a lot of debate on social media with people expressing mixed feelings over the outcomes of the survey.
Outspoken senior journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono took to the microblogging site, Twitter and said the results show that the Chamisa led outfit Citizen’s Coalition for Change(CCC) had work to do.
“Afrobarometer is as close to a credible survey Zimbabwe gets. 51% figure means that people know there is a problem, but the opposition hasn’t made the case why ED is not the person to fix the problem. It is not enough to say ZANU-PF is corrupt, opposition must provide solutions,” said Chin’ono.
“These key findings by the AfroBarometer are always interesting. We elected officials we hardly trust but they are there to represent us and our issues. Kunzima,” said another Twitter user Samkeliso Tshuma.
Further to this, the survey further dissected political parties by affiliation and it was shown that 52% of the respondents from the Midlands felt closer to ZANU-PF against 33% for CCC.
CCC was however popular in provinces such as Manicaland (75%) and Harare (64) while ZANU-PF hogged the limelight in Mashonaland Central (64%) and Mashonaland East (61%).
Overall ZANU-PF (44%) and CCC (42%) are the most popular political parties across the country sharing 84% of the total share.
“Trust in the opposition parties (48%) is however somewhat stronger than trust in the ruling party (44%),” said Afrobarometer.
Meanwhile, after making headlines in a different study by Transparency International Zimbabwe as the most corrupt public institution, the Zimbabwe Republic Police were yet again implicated as the most corrupt.
“ Six in ten citizens (60%) say ‘most’ or ‘all’ police are corrupt, the worst assessment among public officials the survey asked about,” read the findings.
The survey showed that there is a prevalence of lack of trust within the police force, with only 40% of the respondents saying they still trust the institution.
Afrobarometer, through their country partner Mass Public Opinion Institute, conducted the research with retention of 1200 respondents and the margin of error was pegged at +/-3%.