Gweru, August 18,2011 - Zimbabweans have called on President Robert Mugabe and disputed leader of the smaller faction of the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) Arthur Mutambara to quit politics according to recent results of the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) poll.

Presenting the MPOI findings of the research held in July in five provinces, Principal Researcher, Stephen Ndoma, said when they asked respondents on what they would tell political figures if given a chance to advise them, most of the respondents said they would advise Mugabe to retire while he still commanded respect while the common message to Mutambara was to quit politics.

A Mashonaland Central male said:“I would tell him (Mugabe) that we appreciate all he did for the country since 1980 but that it is unacceptable for him to continue holding onto power. I would also ask him to follow Mandela’s (Nelson) footsteps and retire.”

A Masvingo male said: “I would tell Mutambara to quit politics because he is not representing anything or anyone. I would tell him that he is a parasite and should leave politics and ask him to become a politician first before he gets into politics.”

According to the findings, Matabeleland South described Mutambara as driven by greed and urged him to give the legitimate MDC president elected at a congress early this year, Welshman Ncube a chance to be deputy Prime Minister. Mutambara was also urged by the respondents to pursue his robotics career.

Mutambara has refused to step down as leader of the MDC party after he was ousted by Ncube at the party’s congress earlier this year, citing irregularities.

However some respondents said they were not aware of what Ncube stood for either while others said they did not know him. Others said he should join the larger faction of the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The research, whose purpose was to monitor the performance of the inclusive Government, also revealed that the common messages to Tsvangirai were that of encouragement and to develop the country.

One of the research respondents said about Tsvangirai: “If I happen to meet him, I would tell him to be strong and keep on fighting for people’s rights. He should not be afraid even if they continue intimidating him.”

On the Economic direction of the country, most respondents concurred that while things had stabilised after the formation of the Unity government, the economy was now again on a downturn agreeing that the USD the common used currency was hard to get.

One respondent noted: “Money is very difficult to get, you can go for two weeks without getting a mere rand (R1).”

Mass Public Opinion Institute is an Independent Research Institute in Zimbabwe. The research was carried out in Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Masvingo, Matebeleland South and North.