11 Although public polls have their limitations, they can provide useful insights into the views of ordinary citizens, and hence are widely used throughout the world. In Africa, the Afrobarometer has been conducting public polls on democracy and governance for several years now, and has recently completed a second round of polling African countries17. Zimbabwe has been one of those countries in which Afrobarometer surveys have been conducted twice. The Afrobarometer has conducted two large opinion surveys in Zimbabwe: the first before the current crisis, in 199918, and the second was completed in April 200419. These two surveys add a very interesting dimension to the hard facts on Zimbabwe. The 1999 Afrobarometer survey generally indicated that Zimbabweans had very high levels of understanding about democracy: eight in ten Zimbabweans (81%) were able to supply some definition of the concept. Here democracy was seen in terms of civil liberties or personal freedoms. Seven-in-ten Zimbabweans (70%) said democracy was preferable, and, even when democracy is specified to be “not working,” democracy was still supported by large majorities in Zimbabwe (74%). Less than one-in-three Zimbabweans expressed any degree of satisfaction with the Parliamentary and Presidential elections held in 1995 and 1996, with almost one-half of all Zimbabweans saying that there were “major problems” (21%), or that the elections were not free or fair (26%). Amongst the countries surveyed, Zimbabweans had the lowest estimates of the extent of democracy, and thus, on balance, tended to think their country was either not democratic or had severe problems in this respect. While Zimbabweans, on balance, did feel in 1999 that they enjoy more political freedom under the post-independence Mugabe government than they did under the illegal Ian Smith regime, they were the least optimistic of all Southern Africans: less than 18% of the respondents said in 1999 that they were satisfied with the way democracy works in Zimbabwe, and, furthermore, 17% volunteered the response that “Zimbabwe is not a democracy.” As regards the legitimacy of the State, 58% of Zimbabweans agreed that their government had been properly elected, whilst only 24% believed that the government exercised power in an acceptable way. As the Afrobarometer commented, Zimbabweans believe that their government is fairly elected, but does not govern in an acceptable way. Interestingly and obviously related to the constitutional reform process then coming to a head in 1999, only 23% of Zimbabweans agreed that the existing, frequently amended Constitution was acceptable. The issue of “land” was also given some profile by the 1999 Afrobarometer survey. Despite the legacy of settler colonialism, only 1.1 percent of the Zimbabwean respondents indicated in 1999 that land was one of the most important issues requiring government action. Finally, almost six-in-ten Zimbabweans agreed that they need to watch what they say. The 1999 survey thus did not paint a very optimistic picture of Zimbabwe, and, as the authors of the survey commented at the time: First of all, at the time of the survey, Zimbabweans had not come close to seeing a democratic change of power since their founding election (almost two decades). Second, as can be seen also in several other questions, many Zimbabweans do not feel that the Mugabe government has improved their lives significantly over the Smith / minority government regime, thus contributing to a feeling that life goes much the same way regardless of who controls the government. 17 See The Afrobarometer Network. “Afrobarometer Round 2: Compendium of Results from a 15-Country Survey.” 2004. Working Paper No.34. 18 Here 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. 19 . Here see again Chikwana, A., Sithole, T., & Bratton, M. (2004), The Power of Propaganda: Public Opinion in Zimbabwe, 2004, Afrobarometer Report No. 42. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.