People "trust Mugabe," says Afrobarometer - nonsense, "stuck" and "trust" are not synonymous. N Garikai

“Afrobarometer, polled 1 200 adults in Zimbabwe’s urban and rural areas in January and February. It discovered that more than half consider their personal living conditions to be “very bad” or “fairly bad”, reported News24.

“But 64% of Zimbabweans surveyed said they still put their trust in Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in 1980 and says he will stand in next year’s polls.

“There is more trust in the president in rural areas (69%) than urban centres (55%),” Afrobarometer said in a press release to accompany the findings.

I would readily believe Afrobarometer’s finding if the researchers whom did the people believe would win the next elections.

As long as Zanu PF has total control of the whole electoral process and has billions of dollars looted from Marange and Chiadzwa Diamond Fields to bankroll its vote rigging schemes; it is inconceivable that the party will rig the vote and lose the elections.

The truth is Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians have themselves resigned to the reality of Zanu PF rigging the elections. Of course, they will never publicly admit that they are resigned to Zanu PF rigging elections. And so, with each election Tsvangirai and company have had to put up a brace face, tell the public all manner of lies to justify why they are going to win regardless of the vote rigging. This time the lies are wafer thin, most Zimbabweans are not fooled, they can see right through them!

After nearly two decades of Tsvangirai and company promising to bring democratic change and having nothing to show for it, it is easy to see why most Zimbabweans have rightly lost confidence in this opposition. During the 2008 to 2013 GNU MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the necessary democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging the elections. They failed to get even one reform implemented. They lied when the promised the people the 2013 elections will be free and fair as Tsvangirai himself has since readily admitted that Zanu PF "stole" the elections.

After the rigged July 2013 elections Tsvangirai & co. admitted they had made a serious mistake of contesting the elections with no reforms. They told the nation they would never again contest any future elections until the reforms are implemented.

Zanu PF leaders like Professor Jonathan Moyo and VP Mnangagwa have made it clear that "Zanu PF will never reform itself out of power".

The right to free, fair and credible elections is not a privilege to be given to some and denied to others. Zanu PF’s past record of failing to hold free and fair elections is per se a serious human rights violation and the restitution of this basic and fundamental right is therefore a constitutional and moral imperative.

Implementing all the democratic reforms to restore the individual freedoms and rights, including the right to a meaningful vote and the right to life itself is constitutional and moral imperative. As such, implementing the reforms is not subject to negotiation or compromise not certainly not subject to Zanu PF’s dictatorial whim!

Frankly, if Tsvangirai & co. were not so corrupt and incompetent, one expected them to implement the democratic reforms during the GNU when SADC had President Mugabe in the sin-bin. After wasting five years of the GNU Tsvangirai & co. had the opportunity to redeem themselves in the dying months of the GNU by boycotting the flawed elections to force the implementation of the reforms, as David Coltart rightly noted in his book.

“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” explained former MDC Minister and Senator in the GNU, David Coltart.

“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”

 If the case for boycotting the elections to force the implementing of the reforms was “obvious” in 2013 it is a moral imperative today. Tsvangirai and company have no excuse for discarding their own "No reform, no elections!" party resolutions. None, other than same feeble 2013 excuse of fighting over the scraps Zanu PF throws at the opposition to entice them to contest the flawed elections.

Of course, the people of Zimbabwe are not going to risk life and limp to elect an opposition whose sole ambition is the bragging rights to being the country's main opposition party.

Zimbabwe’s political and economic situation is now more desperate than ever; unemployment has soared to 90%; basic services like health, education, water and electricity supply have all but collapsed; etc. Millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty; the kind that kills because they cannot afford decent a meal, medicine, etc.

“We don’t like bond notes but we do trust Mugabe,” Zimbabweans said, according to Afrobarometer report.

The people “trust Mugabe”; what is there for them to trust in the tyrant? There is not even one Zimbabwean out there who does not know that the country is in a serious, serious economic and political mess. The people do not like bond notes but they are the ones spending hours queuing at the bank for a misery 50 bond notes! They are stuck with the bond notes; whether they like them or not is academic!

“We are not a poor country and we can’t be a fragile country. I can call America fragile – they went on their knees to China,” President Mugabe told a forum in SA last week. “Zimbabwe is the most highly developed country in Africa after South Africa.”

So not only is President Mugabe in denial of Zimbabwe’s economic plight and thus denying responsibility for the economic meltdown but, worst of all, he is doing nothing about it. The people of Zimbabwe are in this economic and political mess because, for the last 37 years, the nation has been stuck with the corrupt and murderous tyrant, Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

The only way the people of Zimbabwe are going to end President Mugabe’s tyrannical rule and thus end the economic and political crisis gripping the nation, is by standing firm in demanding the implementation of all the democratic reforms BEFORE the next elections. There is no other way out!

The people are desperate for meaningful democratic change and many of them now know that Tsvangirai will never deliver that change. NEVER EVER! The people “trust Mugabe!”; yeah right! Since when has “stuck” become synonymous with trust!