Club only allowed the meeting to proceed after the police intervened. A follow-up meeting to distribute literature was stopped. In Mbare, the ZANU(PF) members who had been invited to the meeting on 20 October 2009 refused to attend. They told the local co-ordinator that they could not attend it because the Prime Minister had announced disengagement from working with ZANU(PF) in government. In Mhondoro-Mubaira, the facilitators were alerted that a ZANU(PF) councillor had ordered the traditional leaders not to attend. In Sanyati at a meeting held on 16 February 2010, during the meeting, ZANU(PF) youths accused their councillor of calling for a meeting that was hostile to their party policies. The conflict was resolved peacefully and the meeting went on with participation even from those youths. c) Interference from the police There was also interference from the police in some instances such as Bindura, Shurugwi and Beitbridge. In such instances, the police would find a reason to stop, disrupt or postpone the meeting giving a flimsy excuse. The Bindura meeting was initially stopped by a police Superintendent on 8 October 2009, who alleged that the outreach team needed clearance from the Ministry of Justice. The meeting was later held on 16 April 2010. In Shurugwi and Chirumhanzi, the police initially stopped the meetings saying the atmosphere was tense because of the conflicts in the government regarding the constitution-making process, while in Beitbridge, the police said there was a shortage of water so it was unhealthy for anyone to hold a public meeting. In Mberengwa, the police said they had no power over ZANU(PF) councillors. Notes 1  Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia [CCJPR], The Man in the Middle: Torture, Resettlement and Eviction (Salisbury: CIIR, 1975); CCJPR, Civil War in Rhodesia (Salisbury: CIIR, 1976). 2  V. de Waal, The Politics of Reconciliation Zimbabwe’s First Decade. London: C. Hurst, 2002. 3  M. Musemwa, ‘The Ambiguities of Democracy: The Demobilisation of Zimbabwean Ex-combatants and the Ordeal of Rehabilitation, 1980–1993’, in J. Cilliers, Dismissed: Demobilisation and Re-integration of Former Combatants in Africa (Pretoria, Institute of Security Studies, 1995). 4  Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe [CCJPZ] and Legal Resources Foundation [LRF], Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace: Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands, 1980–1989 (Harare: CCJPZ and LRF, 1997). 5  CCJPZ and LRF, Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands, 1980–1988 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008). 6  CCJPZ and LRF, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace. 7  Gukurahundi was the code name given to the operations of the 5th Brigade in Matabeleland. Gukurahundi is a Shona word that means “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains”. 8  “Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe”, a speech by Eileen Sawyer, former National Director of the Legal Resources Foundation, Chatham House, London, 4 September 2007. Available at <http://davidcoltart.com/?p=346>. 9  CCJPZ and LRF, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace. 10  T. F. Kondo, The “Workers Driven” and “People-centred” Development Process for Zimbabwe (June 1996 to February 2000)”, Comprehensive Report for the Advocacy Programme Beyond ESAP Phase 1 (Harare; Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, 2000), 129–31. Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report 17