statistically more likely to have held semi-skilled jobs, whereas women were more likely to have been unemployed prior to coming to South Africa. 2.4 Political involvement in Zimbabwe The majority of Zimbabweans assisted by the ZTVP (69%) indicated that they had been politically active in Zimbabwe. Statistically, men were significantly more likely than women to indicate that this was the case. To illustrate, 75% of all male clients indicated that they had been politically active whilst in Zimbabwe, compared to 58% of all female clients. Amongst Zimbabweans who stated that they had been politically active in Zimbabwe, two thirds of them (65%) indicated that they were members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). 3 EXPERIENCES OF VIOLENCE AND TORTURE 3.1 Incidents of violence and torture In the sample, 40% of Zimbabweans reported having been victims of one torture incident, whereas 41% reported two incidents and 19% reported three or more incidents. Zimbabweans who were politically active in Zimbabwe were significantly more likely than those who were not politically active to report having experienced multiple incidents of torture. To illustrate, 65% of those who reported being politically active experienced two or more incidents of torture, compared to only 45% of those who were not politically active. Similarly, Zimbabweans who reported being members of the MDC were significantly more likely than non-members to report having experienced multiple incidents of torture (i.e. 67% of MDC members experienced two or more incidents of torture compared to 52% of non-MDC members). These findings seem to confirm the findings from previous studies which emphasise that violence and human rights violations in Zimbabwe are neither random acts nor the product of inter-party conflict, but rather linked to important political events such as elections4. 4 Zimbabwe - Tortuous Patterns Destined to Repeat Themselves in Upcoming Election Campaign: Preliminary study of trends and associations in the pattern of torture and organised violence in Zimbabwe, July 2001 - December 2003 (Harare: Redress Trust, November 2004), 27. 6