THERE is an abundance of parallels between the spirited efforts to dismiss the recently published Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI)’s survey report in which President Robert Mugabe scores highly in all critical areas and the Bishop Alex Muchabaiwa-led Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJPZ)’s reflections on the Chirumanzu-Zibagwe and Mt Darwin by-elections that were held in March this year.
According to the MPOI 2015 report, released last week, Zimbabweans have faith in President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF’s leadership and if elections were to be held today, the revolutionary party will emphatically romp to victory.
All his ratings on the five leadership traits over which opinion was sought is over 60 percent.
The results go as follows; 63 percent say he is qualified to govern, 71 percent say he is hard-working, 60 percent say he is honest while 72 percent say he is peace-loving.
Sixty-four (64) percent say he cares for the people.
ZANU PF earns a 54 percent approval in the poll compared to 52 who said they did not trust opposition parties, with the MDC-T earning a paltry 31 percent approval rating.
But going through the diagnosis that has followed the release of the MPOI survey results by several quarters, particularly the so-called ‘independent’ media, one gets the feeling of people who waited in anticipation, but got the result they did not want.
There is widespread dismissal of the MPOI report because this is ZANU PF, the party that is supposed to be on the political deathbed; a Robert Mugabe who is not supposed to be loved by people because his party has supposedly spilt since the unceremonious departure of Joice Mujuru and her cabal in December.
The MPOI report is said to be ‘fake’ because of unproven allegations of ‘fear’ amongst the people surveyed.
Just like Bishop Muchabaiwa’s CCJPZ report which seemed surprised that there was a huge voter turnout in Mt Darwin, then perceived to be Joice Mujuru’s stronghold.
The Muchabaiwa report suggests that people may have been forced or they feared confiscation of their land!
How then does it happen to stick to Muchabaiwa’ s wisdom or lack thereof that ZANU PF is a bigger threat to the resettled farmers in Mt Darwin or anywhere in Zimbabwe whom the party has empowered, than the white man who wants to take that land back?
Although MPOI will never admit, the reason why Zimbabweans trust President Mugabe and ZANU PF is because of the people-oriented policies that have been a consistent feature of ZANU PF’s life.
Inside the corridors of the opposition MDC-T and its numerous offshoots, within the academia and the independent press, there is always this terminal denial ailment where Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF are supposed to be alien to unity, peace and development.
When people in Epworth gather in huge numbers to attend a by-election rally, it is either they have been ‘intimidated’ or the attendance figures are downplayed.
In 2013, at Chiweshe, during his first rally in the run-up to the July 31 2013 elections, The Patriot crew attended this gathering where over 25 000 people attended.
That pattern would characterise the 11 rallies that would give ZANU PF the mandate to rule again.
What emerged in the aftermath of the destruction of the MDC-T was ‘general’ consensus within the private media that ZANU PF had ‘rigged’ the election.
But these were the same people who were there claiming that people were being ‘force marched’ to attend the rallies!
If ZANU PF wanted to ‘rig’ the polls, why did it have to burden itself with ‘force-marching’ people to its rallies?
Why did the likes of Freedom House, Afrobarometer, Chatham House and the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust (ZHT) publish findings of the poll results that tallied when there has never been convergence among these think-tanks?
Why is it a ZANU PF victory or success is never attributed to its policies?
If there was any doubt about ZANU PF’s connection with the people, doubters would have to look no further than the moons preceding the historic July 31 2013 dismantling of the MDC-T by President Mugabe’s party.
In 2013, they dismissed a survey done by Susan Booysen, whose findings were mirrored by the results of the elections.
They rejected three surveys: the Freedom House one done by Booysen, another internal one done by MDC IRI and one conducted by Afrobarometer.
But even after the July 31 2013 general elections, there was and still is general consensus among the progressive world that ZANU PF is here to stay.
In September last year, UK academic and Zimbabwe watcher Professor Stephen Chan said Morgan Tsvangirai’s time as ‘a meaningful political force’ was over and that ZANU PF will win with ease the 2018 general election.
Chan, a Professor of International Relations at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and a rabid ZANU PF critic, gave his damning assessment of Tsvangirai in an interview published by World Politics Review.
“The current splits in the MDC reflect fissures that have been building for a long time,” he said.
“Tendai Biti, the finance minister in the earlier coalition government from 2009-2013, never got along well with Tsvangirai, who served as prime minister and is the current party leader.
“However, the nature of the 2013 electoral defeat – not only because of registration roll irregularities but also because of a spectacularly inept MDC campaign led by Tsvangirai – was the nail in the coffin.”
There will forever be elements within us who are perpetually opposed to the truth, but as was the case in 2013, history will repeat itself again in the 2018 election when ZANU PF again comes out tops.