4. Challenges during the Outreach a) Harassment of Participants In most of the constituencies, there were reports of harassment and intimidation. In Chipinge Central, at a meeting held on 15 September 2009 at Paidamoyo Primary School, a group of participants approached the facilitators in confidence and reported that they could not participate actively because they were afraid of the war veterans and some youth militias who had threatened unspecified action. After the meeting in Zvimba West which was held on 26 November 2009, it was later reported by the local co-ordinator that one of the participants was visited by a ZANU(PF) delegation led by a retired major in the company of the ZANU(PF) youth chairperson for Zvimba West. It was reported that they accused her of speaking against the army during the workshop. The retired major is alleged to have told the female participant that they could facilitate the disappearance of her husband and she would lose her stand at the flea market. The participant went to report the matter at Zvimba Police Station where she was attended to by a Police Internal Security and Intelligence Officer who, she said, undertook to take action. On 27 November 2009, the local co-ordinator received a phone call from a person (identified) from Chinhoyi. The local co-ordinator reports that the caller told him that he had done something wrong by organizing a workshop that brought MDC people. As a punishment, he was therefore going to lose his job (employer named). b) Interference by Political Players In Mberengwa West, the ZANU(PF) councillor and chairperson of the council told the facilitators in the presence of two police officers that the transitional justice meeting could not take place in Mberengwa because ‘the subject of transitional justice and national healing was forbidden’. If the facilitators thought otherwise they would need to look for and get the permission from the ZANU(PF) chairperson for the area. The councillor said that the agenda of the meeting was political in nature, and the party that ruled Mberengwa was very protective of their space and such meetings ruffled feathers and as such the Mberengwa leadership could not allow them. He said he was a very small fish in such matters and he feared for himself if he allowed such a meeting to take place. The police said in the face of the councillor’s concerns, they too were bound by what he had said because he represented the local people. When the Forum attempted to go to Mberengwa West, South and North, the facilitators were told to go back to the councillor as he was the chairperson. In Chipinge, ZANU(PF) activists arrived at Paidamoyo Primary School, the venue for the meeting and accused the local co-ordinators of misleading the participants and deceiving them into attending a political meeting. When the meeting finally took off, they forbade people from grouping or even participating. They said the people in Chipinge had nothing to say. During the discussion, where the ZANU(PF) councillor did not like the flow or issue under discussion, he would interrupt the meeting by chanting the ZANU(PF) slogan. In Mount Darwin South, the ZANU(PF) activists tried to block the meeting which took place on 14 October 2009 at Mount Darwin Sports Club. The administrator of the Sports 16 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report