28 Chapter 3. Victims of Organized Violence and Torture in Zimbabwe, and their views on the state of democracy in Zimbabwe. Background Democracy in Zimbabwe has been in trouble for several years now. The Afrobarometer in its survey on Zimbabwe carried out in 1999 noted generally that Zimbabweans aspired to live in a democracy, but were largely pessimistic that this would happen33. Since 1999, against the background of a very strong and determined drive for democracy by political parties and civics, Zimbabwe has drifted into a state of severe crisis, with massive inflation, food insecurity, political conflict, and international opprobrium. Zimbabweans now seem to believe that the prospects for an open democracy have receded even further. The recent Afrobarometer survey, as well as the previous survey in 1999, suggested that Zimbabweans as a whole remain committed to democracy, but generally have a low opinion of the democracy that they are served. However, the Afrobarometer survey of 2004 suggests that they might be giving up34. These results have received a certain amount of comment, but surprisingly not much as might have been expected given the prominence of the Zimbabwe crisis internationally and regionally in Africa. Central to the Afrobarometer findings was the finding that propaganda, or control of the media, was the major causal factor in the increased support for Robert Mugabe and the drop in faith for multi-party democracy35. This finding, however, is only part of the story according to political analyst, Professor Brian Raftopoulos. As he puts it: “The monopolising of the electronic media and the repression of alternative daily voices such as the Daily News has clearly had an effect in preventing alternative views on the economic and political crisis from informing daily debate. Moreover this monopolisation of the media needs to be viewed in conjunction with the other ways in which the state has been used to repress alternative political formations. However this assessment needs to keep in mind that Zanu PF has combined these coercive measures with a skilful articulation of historical grievances, such that it has presented its vision as a daily part of people’s lives, and in some sense speaking ‘for the people’. Ideologies, in order to be effective, do not have to be totally consistent or homogeneous. In a repressive environment they can be articulated to ‘make sense’ in the absence of alternative explanations, and people can begin to internalise such positions for various reasons of personal and social survival.”36 Professor Raftopoulos places the engineering of consent amongst Zimbabweans in a broader frame than merely the manipulation of the media, and argues that other forms of repression must be seen in the mix. Paramount amongst these other forms of repression must be the organized violence and torture that has been the subject of literally dozens of human rights reports37. Moreover, the “historical 33 See AFROBAROMETER (1999), Public Opinion and the Consolidation of Democracy in Southern Africa: An Initial Review of Key Findings From the Southern African Democracy Barometer, Afrobarometer Paper No.12 34 Here see the results quoted in the introductory chapter, pages 3 and 4. 35 The Afrobarometer report indicated that, in explaining the apparent increase in Robert Mugabe’s popularity, “propaganda” contributed more than 50%of the variance. Political fear only contributed 8% of the variance. 36 See Raftopoulos. B. (2004), tracking changes in Zim Politics. Zimbabwe In9dependent, 20 August 2004. 37 A very rough count of the number of reports issued by Zimbabwean and international groups since 2000 suggests that over 300 reports have been issued on the country. Reports on human rights violations – on the organised violence and torture – are a very significant proportion of this number. Incidentally, the number of reports issued over the past 5 years provides a very interesting indicator of the crisis, when it is considered that the total number of human rights reports for the previous 3 decades totals a little more than 100 reports. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.