We also examined potential differences due to Political Trust. Political trust has not been shown
to be factor in Western studies to lie behind more active political participation (van Deth.2001),
but previous Zimbabwean studies have shown consistent differences between rural and urban
groups in the degree of trust they place in key political figures and agencies (RAU. 2018 (a);
RAU. 2018 9b)). Given the mooted relationship between Apostolics and residence in rural
areas, we expected to find that Apostolics evinced greater Political Trust than other religions.
Table 6: Political Trust Index
President
Parliament
National electoral
commission
Local government
council
Ruling party
Opposition political
parties
Police
Army
Courts
Traditional leaders
Religious leaders
Other
religions Apostolic
[n=983] [n=216]
41%
50%*
25%
37%*
24%
31%*
23%
32%
32%*
42%*
8%
23%
34%
28%
40%
41%
6%*
35%*
43%*
47%*
51%*
45%*
In general the levels of trust are not very
high, with only in trust the president (in
February 2017) and traditional leaders
reaching around 50%. However, members of
Apostolic churches have significantly higher
trust in every single official or organisation
than members of other churches, and,
furthermore, have much lower trust in
opposition political parties. When seen in the
context of high levels of political fear by
Apostolics (and other churches), the low trust
levels seem obvious.
*significantly different on χ2 (p=0.001)
Given this lack of trust in opposition political parties, it is not surprising that Apostolics are the
stronger supporters of ZANU-PF than members of other churches. Other religions show greater
support for the MDC-T and other political parties than the Apostolics, but there are also very
much higher frequencies of the “reticent” – those answering as inapplicable or refused to
answer in the members of other churches, but the Apostolic members also have reasonably
high frequencies of being “reticent”.
Table 7: Political Affiliation
Taking the rates of “reticence” in the
context of high levels of political fear and
relatively low levels of political trust, it
does not seem that in can be axiomatically
assumed that members of Apostolic
churches can be comprehensively assumed
to be in the packet of ZANU-PF. Those
that express open political affiliation do
not support opposition political parties, but
very high numbers are “reticent”, and it is
not evident where their support would
have been placed (or where it was placed)
in the 2018 elections).
Close to MDC-T
Close to ZANU-PF
Close to other party
Reticent about closeness
to party
Vote for MDC-T
Vote for ZANU-PF
Vote for other party
Reticent about voting
Other
religions Apostolic
[n=983] [n=216]
14%*
6%
32%
46%*
3%*
1%
51%*
16%
35%
6%*
42%*
47%
12%
53%*
3%
32%
*significantly different on χ2 (p=0.001)
7