JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday
THE growing economic meltdown and attendant food shortages in Zimbabwe have eroded public support for President Robert Mugabe and his campaign to confiscate prime agricultural land from white commercial farmers, a hard-hitting international opinion poll has found.
The poll, based on a sample of 2 000 Zimbabwean adults in both urban and rural areas, found that 78% of voters opposed Mugabe’s plans to take over white farms, mines and factories. Despite “government propaganda” and the controversial invasion of white-owned commercial farms, only six percent of Zimbabweans actually believe that land reform is a vital issue.
Public support for Mugabe has plummeted to just 13% since the embattled southern African country’s general elections in June. Support for Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has been particularly hard hit in urban centres such as the capital Harare, where only seven percent of voters want him to continue as president.
The poll was compiled by the Harare-based Gallup International subsidiary, Probe Market Research, and South Africa’s Helen Suzman Foundation.
More than half those interviewed said Mugabe should be impeached, while 51% said he should be put on trial for the his “crimes” even if he resigned voluntarily.
The slide in public support represents a 10% drop for Mugabe’s land reform policy since January, when an estimated 30% of Zimbabweans supported the forceful confiscation of white farms and other property.
“64% of respondents say the land invasions ‘have nothing to do with genuine land reform’. Only 21% think the farm invasions are justified and understandable while 70% think the war vets ‘are just criminals who should be charged with their crimes’,” said Foundation director RW Johnson.
The unprecedented shift in public support has, the poll claims, placed outspoken Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the lead as the country’s next president.
Zanu-PF said it was suspicious about the techniques used to compile the report, but was studying the findings and would only comment in detail later. – African Eye News Service