39 Justice Berebenda reported being stopped in Zvishavane at a roadblock two weeks before elections and told that he would be shot if he continued along the road. His car was searched and his MDC pamphlets and posters were confiscated. On a separate trip on 22 April, he recalled coming across a Zanu (PF) rally where the local chairperson of the party said that MDC supporters should be brought to the rally and assaulted. Marfera Guzeze testified in the Makoni West case that she was forced to attend a Zanu (PF) rally under threat of assault. Mahachi spoke at the rally. He said that because people voted no on the referendum, they would suffer. He told MDC members to come forward and surrender their tshirts and cards. He said machines at the polling stations would detect whom people voted for. If people voted for MDC, Zanu (PF) youths would assault them. Mahachi said he was the leader of soldiers, and “I kill, like what we did to Chiminya.” No MDC members came forward to surrender their cards and t-shirts. However, the village headman visited Guzeze after the rally and demanded that she surrender her t-shirt. She refused, saying that Zanu (PF) supporters should come and collect the t-shirt themselves. Erica Nyaunde testified in the Makoni East case that the election was not free and fair because the MDC could not campaign out of fear, particularly after the deaths of Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika. She said that Chiminya was well known in the area for campaigning on behalf of the MDC and news of his death spread throughout the community quickly. She also argued that Zanu (PF) intimidation was constant and that their youth were offered $150 for every MDC t-shirt they produced. The MDC could hold only a few poorly attended meetings after the intimidation started and their overall ability to campaign was severely hampered, she argued. A witness in Buhera North was identified as an MDC supporter as he was passing by a Zanu (PF) rally. According to testimony, a Zanu (PF) supporter pointed an assault rifle at him and made him take off his MDC shirt, which the assailant then burned. Conrad Dengezi describes in the Murehwa North petition two instances in which he was threatened: On 19 May, Dengezi reported the destruction of his homestead to the police. On his way home, some Zanu (PF) supporters said to him “Old man, we saw you coming from the police station to report the burning of your houses, we want to chop off your head”. They told him that when an old MDC man has been naughty, his houses get burned down and that they could “beat up police officers”. After his homestead was burnt, Conrad Dengezi was told by his family that his head was wanted, and that he should leave his home…His mother told him not to stay there because his life had been threatened. She told him that if he stayed there, she would hang herself. Someone also told him that if he stayed his head would be cut off. Another witness in the Murehwa North election petition described her experience: The day after the assault and the burning of the homestead, Rose Gonese testified that she went to Harare to hide. She took her sister to the hospital and then returned to Murehwa to attend to her crops. Whilst in Murehwa, she was forced to go to a Zanu (PF) meeting by a neighbor. She was afraid that if she did not attend something would happen to her. It was said by a Zanu (PF) supporter at the meeting that if they didn’t finish MDC now, two weeks later they would make MDC supporters cross the border. She asked him later what he meant by his comment and he told her, “Killing – we mean killing”. Chief Tshovani, an unwilling witness subpoenaed to testify before the High Court in the Chiredzi North case, recounted how he was perceived to be an MDC supporter because he had been accused of supplying Edmore Hachi with an MDC t-shirt, an allegation he adamantly denied in court. Tshovani testified that Mutemachani and a war veteran came to collect him from his residence to proceed to an occupied farm where Zanu (PF) MP Chauke arrived and ordered the Chief to instruct his children and villagers that if they dared to vote for the MDC that Zanu (PF) AMANI Trust: Organised Violence and Torture in the June 2000 General Election in Zimbabwe