The Mass Public Opinion Institute conducted round 4 of the Afrobarometer survey in Zimbabwe in May 2009. The purpose of the survey is to compare public opinion about various economic civic and social issues across African countries.

The survey was supposed to have been undertaken in 2008, but the political instability prevalent in the country at the time made this impossible. Further, the sample size is based on 2002 Census figures, which are projected to 2008 figures with consideration being given to issues such as mass migration and displacement.

Despite many criticisms at its formation the majority of respondents expressed a belief that the Inclusive Government was the best way forward. Added to that 57% of respondents said that they would vote for MDC–T in the next election, as compared to 10% for ZANU PF. The popularity of the MDC is also mirrored in the high approval rating for Morgan Tsvangirai and his work in the Inclusive Government. Interestingly, Mr. Tsvangirai’s job performance is viewed positively by members of both parties.

It may be inferred that hope was restored to the public because 71% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the way government was managing the economy. Despite this, day to day issues were also seen in the survey, with the majority of respondents ranking management of the economy as the most important problem facing the country. Second to this were the issues of unemployment and education. Interestingly, a majority of respondents expressed greater satisfaction with the current state of the economy as compared with other years including 2004, 2005 and most notably 1999.

Issues of contention which arose during the survey presentation included the survey sample being based on 2002 census data; the fact that more respondents expressed greater satisfaction with the economy in 2009 as compared to 1999 and what the terms ‘economic policies’ and ‘economic management’ meant to the respondents.

What is most evident from the survey is that the formation of the inclusive government has restored hope in people. While many acknowledge the challenges in their own lives, they are optimistic that the country’s fortunes are on their way up.

Only time will tell if this hope is well founded.

Every morning, I dread getting to the Newlands shopping centre area where – it would seem – vendors of all nature are waiting for me to make my way past them so that they can sell me whatever they have on offer for the day.

Don’t misunderstand me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bunch of guys trying to make a decent living out of selling their wares. In fact, that is a noble gesture.

But sometimes, it’s all about how a person tries to persuade you to buy into their business that is all wrong.

These guys obviously have zero appreciation of the fine art of selling. As they crowd around me with their pockets of strawberries, or sunglasses or whatever else, I develop a deep sense of dread at the conversation to ensue.

“Sisi, buy these strawberries/ sunglasses/ sweets, please,” one will say.

“I don’t have money today,” I will respond.

“But sisi, just one dollar,” he will continue. “I promise you won’t regret it.”

“Sorry, not today,” I will respond, hoping that this will conclude the conversation.

Far from it.

Rather, these responses seem to provide them with the fuel to carry on and on until I have to completely shut myself off from responding to them and disappear into the nearby office complex.

I know these are desperate times and everyone is looking for a means to survive, but these guys actually put me off buying from them.

Why?

Because their techniques are more about harassment than selling.

Because they do not appreciate the fact that I perhaps do not need to buy strawberries or sweets or air time daily!

Take the one who sells tennis rackets.

Each day, he lurks around the corner waiting for me to pass by so that he can spring his rackets on me and try to convince me that I need to buy one.

“But I don’t play tennis,” I once told him.

“So get it for your child,” he responded.

The cheek and nerve for him to even insinuate that I had a child old enough to be able to hold a tennis racket!

A good salesperson knows to not make assumptions about their customers, especially ones that can backfire in their face!

As a result of his statement, he has served himself a life ban from my service – even if I one day decide to emulate Serena Williams’ ferocious forehand.

But most importantly, a good salesman knows that hounding his potential customers like prey won’t encourage them to buy anything. It will only make them more resolute to never buy anything from him, thereby shutting out all possibility of him ever attempting to make a follow-up sale.

I am not a comfort zone person so I am not going to sit back and just enjoy or act as if I don’t see anything wrong. Actually I am taking advice from Dewa Mavinga who said Zimbabweans need to stand up and say something. So here I am standing up. I would like the Minister of Transport to view me as an adviser and heavens knows we need a lot of us in this country. Who in this beautiful country advised what’s his name to buy a fleet of cars when the City of Harare lies in ruins? However my advice goes to the Transport Minister, not to the guy who has nice cars. I mean he doesn’t have his sole hope of going back home with a windi in a combi. I have left my 5 Rands, 50 cents or 3 trillion in over three combis in the last few weeks and I have had enough. Things were going well when the windis did not mind us, the people, having just the 17 notes of the 60 notes that make up 3 trillion. But yo after this high rate craze not only do the windis want the full 3 trillion; they don’t even have any form of change. Now my Minister take a listen; unless you have a plan to solve this dollar for two business, I have a solution. Why don’t you and your Ministry introduce a ticket system? Have people buy a week worth of transport tickets then the combi people can collect their money every end of day or month. That way I am just getting in and out of the combi hastle free. I don’t have to follow a perfect stranger so that we can split a dollar which never happens. I end up leaving the whole dollar with the other person because I cannot parade the streets of Harare when I am late for work. What pains me the most is that when you go to the windis asking for reimbursement they have conveniently forgotten you. I will not stand for this daylight robbery, so Minister do something. Hey whatever the pros and cons of this advice, you can deal with them until you have thought of a better idea. I have just suggested something you haven’t thought about.

“Dollar for two” has taken on a whole new dimension in Harare.

At first, the phrase – which has recently become popular since Zimbabwe’s conversion to using US dollars – only applied to buying foodstuffs like packets of crisps and biscuits which were priced at 50 US cents (which hardly anyone in Zimbabwe has).

But now, even the kombi drivers are using it. Yes, if you want to get on a kombi around Harare these days, you must either have a companion travelling with you (so that you pay the round figure of one dollar) or have 50 cents, or 5 rands on you.

It seems that the kombi drivers who had been tolerating passengers making use of the Zim dollar equivalent of 50 cents – which is 3 trillion dollars – have since tired of the worthless currency.

And so if you happen to be travelling alone these days and only have US dollar notes on you, you have to be sure to latch yourself onto a fellow passenger who has a coin on them – or else find some other way to travel.

A friend of mine recently had to walk all the way from Avondale to Hatfield after he failed to produce changed money in order to get on a kombi.

“I had two options,” he said. “Either I was going to get on the kombi and pay my dollar note and leave my change with the driver, or I was going to walk.”

The second option – although gruelling – was more appealing to him. Some kombi drivers say that if you don’t have change, they can write you a receipt so that you can travel on that the next time. But many passengers aren’t buying that.

Where exactly are passengers meant to get 5 rands for travel in a coinless economy? And why won’t kombi drivers accept those trillions anymore? After all, all they do is continue to circulate among passengers as change. I wouldn’t be surprised if very soon, kombi fares are pegged at one dollar – just another headache for so many Zimbabweans who are fighting just to get by.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of muttering on the streets about the US $152,000 Mercedes Benz recently acquired by Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda.

Now, it turns out, the City of Harare has also bought two Prados, valued at as much as US $190,000 together.

According to a statement from the Combined Harare Residents Association, the money spent on these three vehicles would be enough “to procure water treatment chemicals that can supply the entire city of Harare with clean water for almost half a year.”

We asked our SMS subscribers what they thought about the Mayoral Benz. We received over 50 replies from across Zimbabwe. A few subscribers were supportive of the new vehicle, but overall the responses were quite condemning. We share some of these responses below:

A pity he already forgets we have no water. Our robots don’t work. Our roads are bad. Shame on him.

——

You’re just jealous. He deserves it.

——

That’s shit. These high profile people are not concerned about the masses.

——

Why r we not surprised! They will never change there bad habits, Never!

——

This is madness and lack of direction when City is losing lot of treated water

——

It simply confirms that Zanu Pf and the MDC are one and the same. They are all after riches and nothing else. We are alone in the struggle against poverty!

——

Residence should boycott paying rates and water bills till the services improves

——

Water first be4 luxuries

——

It is very bad. People in Kuwadzana are taking ten hours in a queue to fetch water from a borehole.

——

Lets all refuse to pay for bills charged by parastatals and local authorities coz the money is going to pay for luxuries and hefty salaries and no services.

——

This is quite pathetic. How cum that they use such an amt for nothing yet they sey the gvt is bankrupt & fail to pay civil servants & leave our cities in a poor state.

It’s August 31, 2009 at 5:19pm and I am … I’m enough! I’m enough! I am SO enough of this! Zvakwana.

Let me explain. This afternoon I had a coffee date with a dear friend. It was nice. It had been a while since we’d seen each other so it was lovely to do some catching up. Post-coffee, I wait along 2nd Street Extension hoping a combi will soon come by. It’s getting hotter every day and as you can imagine waiting for public transport is not user-friendly in this kind of weather. I see a combi approaching, hand stuck out of the window pointing toward the city centre, and a voice shouting, “City! Copacabana!” I obligingly gesture that I want a ride in the death-trap into downtown Harare. I’m in and we’re off. I’m trying to remain very salala with the ‘hwindi’ (conductor) yelling to other passengers in my ear while straddling the poor man to my left. The poor guy also has the unwelcome privilege of having the hwindi’s armpit not too far from his nose.

I hand the hwindi a lovely crisp portrait of George Washington. For those of you who are unfamiliar or are new to ‘rolling’ in a combi, let me break it down for you quickly. For one trip, e.g. Mount Pleasant to downtown Harare, it costs US$0.50 or ZAR5.00 or Z$3 trillion (I don’t know how many zeroes are involved in that one!). I am yet to board a combi that takes Euros or pounds. However, I will keep you posted on any developments in that area. Remember how I gave the hwindi a dollar-bill? Yes? That means that he owes me change of US$0.50 or ZAR5.00 or Z$3 trillion, right? There are a couple of other passengers who are waiting for their change, too. Then lo and behold what befalls my ears? That awful, awful refrain of “handina change vabereki” (I don’t have change).

We arrive at my final stop and there are four of us who are still waiting on our change. The hwindi calmly and unapologetically hands us two one-dollar-bills and tells us to figure out how to split the bills between ourselves, on our own. I try to explain to him that I am going in the opposite direction of the chick with whom I’d be partnered to split the dollar. She Chitungwiza and me, Greendale. The hwindi blank-stares me, shrugs his shoulders and tells the driver to drive off. There I am on Park Street, seething about what just happened but this doesn’t help because I am still without my money!! I know, I know it seems a tad overboard to react so intensely about FIFTY cents. But people, let me tell you something: when you use public transit frequently, fifty cents is a BIG deal. Trust me. See, it’s not just `combis that are stealing from people and short-changing them. Think about how many times you’ve gone to the store and they ask you to purchase a sweet, a razor-blade or a box of matches just so they don’t have to give you change. Or credit notes! Oh my freaking gosh! There are more credit notes than cash in my wallet at any given time. How long have we been using Obama bucks in this country – officially and unofficially? It’s been a while, correct? Then explain to me HOW and WHY no one ever has change for me… and you… and you…and you, too! It’s unacceptable.

Let me tell you something: I worked for that 73 cents, and NO, I don’t want a handful of Dandy bubble gums or a mini Lunch Bar or a packet of peanut-centered Tumbles! How do you know that I’m not allergic to peanuts?!  Huh? Or maybe I’m trying to lose weight and here you are TEMPTING me! Just give me my freaking 73 cents! Can I tell you the ultimate? I was at St Elmo’s on Saturday with a friend. Great conversation, great pizza and delicious chocolate brownie with ice-cream. Yummy. It’s time for the bill. We pay. We are owed change. Without missing a beat our server says, “I can write you a credit note.” Are you kidding me?!?! Seriously?!  St Elmo’s is a restaurant that has hundreds of people patronizing it daily and our server wants me to take a credit note?!?!  That’s ridiculous.

The whole “hatina change, credit note” song-and-dance is old. It’s unacceptable. It’s fueling resentment. It’s a 20 cents here, 68 cents there, ‘no-change-for-my-combi-fare’ reminder of how Zimbabweans are stolen from daily. Please stop the madness. Zvakwana. I’m enough now…

This is Black Orchid sounding off.  I’m out.