MUTARE CENTRAL 1. CONSTITUENCY: MUTARE CENTRAL 2. PROVINCE: MANICALAND   3. VENUE: SCOUT HALL 4. DATE: 02 SEPTEMBER 2009 5. PARTICIPANTS: No.: 31 Sex: 48% female Age: 21–67, average 31 years From: local business leaders, human rights activists, youths, church representatives, women, political activists and government employees 6. RECOMMENDATIONS i. Accountability • Perpetrators of political violence must face justice [political activists and women’s group]. • Systems of accountability are also systems of reconciliation. Without a culture of accountability, you cannot guarantee non-repetition [church representatives]. ii. Reparations and reconciliation • Reparations must be paid to all those who had been wounded or dispossessed of their property [church representatives and business people]. • Those who committed bad things in the past must approach those they had injured and seek forgiveness [church representatives]. • There must be ways of reconciling past enemies. Those who committed offences must acknowledge their wrongs [church representatives]. • Reconciliation must start from grassroots, not from the leaders making declarations in Victoria Falls. Such a model of reconciliation will not trickle down to the masses who suffered the worst [church representatives]. • Reconciliation cannot be achieved in a short time, the way politicians are trying to do it. It can take a lengthy period of time, trying to weave various approaches including assessment of reparations in order to achieve reconciliation [church representatives]. • Any reconciliation programme must consider reparation because it is not possible for one to forgive someone who has stolen his oxen while he sees them next door every day [male participant] iii. Institutional reform • The current state of the judiciary cannot deliver justice. After reporting a matter, one has to wait for long periods for justice to be done. Perpetrators continue to make further threats. As long as perpetrators are not punished by the courts, there can’t be reconciliation. “Chinokanganwa idemo, muti haukanganwe.” [“The perpetrator can forget, not the victim.”] [male participant]. • There are institutions which tend to fuel further violence because if one makes a report 38 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report