'51% Zimbabweans still trust Mnangagwa'

AN Afro barometer round 9 survey has revealed that 51% of Zimbabwean still trust President Emmerson Mnangagwa to lead the nation despite them not happy about the badly performing economy.

This was revealed yesterday during a Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) meeting in Bulawayo where the survey principal Stephen Ndoma said he used a sample size of 1 200 citizens, adding that his study had an error rate of +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

"The majority (64%) being those with primary or no formal education followed by 58% of those of no or low lived poverty and the least is those living in high poverty who constitute 40% said they trust the President, but 42% of those living in the urban areas say they do not trust the President," Ndoma said while announcing the findings of his survey carried out from 2017 to 2022.

Ndoma said 94% of people in Harare and 82% in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South were not happy about the country's continuously deteriorating economic situation, saying government was performing "fairly bad" or "very bad" on key economic issues.

The respondents also said government was failing to keep prices stable (87%), failing to create jobs (86%) and failing to narrow the gap between the rich and poor (79%).

Almost three-quarters (72%) of citizens said the country was going in the wrong direction.

"Nearly eight in 10 citizens (78%) say the country's economic condition is either ‘fairly bad' or ‘very bad', while 64% describe their living conditions in the same way," he said, adding that management of the economy (cited by 45% respondents) and unemployment (43%) are the most important problems that Zimbabweans want their government to address.

Ndoma said the view that the country was heading in the wrong direction was most pronounced among citizens (87%).

NANGO regional co-ordinator Esnath Chambiwa said people in rural areas trusted anything coming their way, yet urbanites understood the economic situation in the country due to their access to internet.

Mpopoma Pelandaba MP Charles Moyo (Citizens Coalition for Change) questioned how the survey bunched together Matabeleland North, South and Bulawayo, yet they were different.