They believe that politics need not be dangerous; that it is not inevitable that violence and politics cohere [Q40]. 93% agree with the statement that ‘violence is never justified’ [Q41]. To illustrate the party support dimension, of those who ‘strongly agree’ that violence is never justified in politics in Zimbabwe – 42% are from the MDC-T and 15% from ZANU-PF. 62% feel that ZANU-PF’s youth militia (often cited as perpetrators of violence) do not look out for the interests of Zimbabweans [Q47C]. 3.2 Histories of Zimbabweans’ exposure to violence and intimidation As essential background, the Freedom House surveys have anchored Zimbabweans’ opinions on violence and intimidation in the respondents’ reports on whether they and members of their families had been affected, in the period since independence in 1980, by nine forms of violence and intimidation (Table 9). Table 9: Exposure to politically motivated incidents of violence and intimidation since 1980 Personal exposure (%) Exposure of family members (%) Acts of politically motivated September December 2010 September 2009 December 2010 violence, force & intimidation 2009 Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Intimidation, threat, harassment 35 37 35 65 39 33 44 51 Theft, damage to personal property 12 60 13 87 18 54 25 69 Denial of food or starvation 17 55 15 85 18 53 21 73 Forced removal from home, land 9 63 7 93 16 55 17 78 Closure of business 7 65 4 96 10 62 9 85 Loss of a job 7 65 5 95 14 86 11 82 Arrest, kidnap abduction 6 66 6 94 13 59 29 64 Personal injury, incl. rape, torture 12 60 10 90 22 50 38 54 Witnessed someone killed, injured 27 45 35 65 24 46 7 29 Question: ‘Thinking about the period since independence in 1980, please tell me whether you personally / members of your family were ever affected in any of the following ways – refer only to events that were politically motivated’ [Q44; Q45] These historically focussed experiences are counter-posed to experiences in the present (immediate past in current Zimbabwe). In this respect, the 2010 survey results show that violence and intimidation are ‘alive and well’ in Zimbabwe today. (In the two months since fieldwork, there have also been multiple reports about escalations; see Political context.) A battery of items [Q47] tested the contemporary experiences of political violence and the perceived impact of violence on party support. The highlighted pairs of blocks in Table 10 demonstrate the overwhelming continuation of practices and experiences of violence and intimidation, as well as continuous operation of a palpable ‘fear structure’ in Zimbabweans politics, as measured in December 2010. At best, there was some sense that there is more freedom nowadays to express political views than before. The prevailing effects of politically 30