• The truth is sacred. People must come out and confess. If you confess, “Chero ngozi inoshaya samba” [“Even the offended spirits of the dead lose power to avenge”] [political activist from an undisclosed party]. • Zimbabwe has a number of commissions which have made excellent recommendations, all which were ignored. Building from that experience, commissions could be set up to begin the process of truth recovery [political activist from an undisclosed party]. • Women are concerned over the political will of the leaders in this process, saying there is a need for the leadership to be “faithful to the truth”. The leadership of the country was ready to sacrifice truth for political gain, concluding: “That’s why they lie each time they go to [election] campaigns” [view strongly supported by women’s group]. • Whoever leads the process must be someone who can be trusted. Someone who is in court one day being charged with violence cannot the next day be seen preaching peace [all participants]. • The current leadership can only be measured by their attitude towards past atrocities. “If they cannot admit the shameful things they did in Matabeleland, why should we expect them to do anything now?” [women’s group]. • The church is full of politicians [a view expressed by one unnamed group of political activists and disputed by church representatives who “wished to assure the nation they were non-partisan”]. • “Removing the church is like removing God from the process. It does not work” [church representatives]. • Traditional leaders are best placed to lead the process of truth recovery [elderly male] because they knew what happened on both sides of the political divide [a view not accepted by the political activists who maintained that the previous regime had managed to strike fear into the hearts of the chiefs]. • All political parties are under the chiefs and they do not participate in politics. If politicians give them a chance, they will deliver the truth to the people and reconciliation to the nation. “We know the actual methods of doing it” [traditional leaders]. iii. Reparations • Besides the obvious victim of political violence, any transitional justice mechanism must also treat anyone who witnessed violence as a victim of political violence [a victim]. • There must be compensation for all victims of political violence and it must come from government because it failed to protect its citizens [female participant who identified herself with ZANU(PF)]. • Candidates (election) who sponsored violence must also pay compensation [victim whose political affiliation was not specified]. • “You can rebuild a house. What about a woman who was raped?” [victim of political violence, on the rehabilitation of victims]. • The emotional trauma experienced by someone whose house had been burnt down might be alleviated, but “they [must] apologize and buy my house which they destroyed” [victim]. 76 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report