Based on respondents’ responses, it can be deduced that communities continue to leave in fear as a result of the unaddressed past human rights violations. Therefore, the NPRC should be set up to fact find, document and archive issues relating to past injustices and human rights violations with truthfulness. Communities believe NPRC was established to deal with diverse socio-economic and political concerns which require the body to have a broad mandate beyond its constitutional restrictions. This is evidently explained by research participants’ broad views on the reasons 5.3 for setting up the NPRC. For example, communities want the NPRC to assist in reducing political polarisation, fear and intimidation within communities, create an environment for free and fair elections, address socio-economic grievances and to raise awareness on human rights. Some of these community expectations are, however, outside the constitutional mandate of the NPRC and should be broadly addressed by other Independent Commissions Supporting Democracy such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Past Experiences to Inform the Peace and Reconciliation Framework The Peace and Reconciliation Framework that Zimbabwe will adopt may determine the extent to which the NPRC will achieve or fulfil its mandate. However, this framework should be determined by past human rights violations, conflict episodes and challenges that Zimbabwe as a country endured before and after its independence. This means that pre-and post-independence experiences should be identified and explored. Research participants and informants mentioned diverse episodes and experiences that are relevant to consider whe n d e v e l o p i n g t h e p e a c e a n d reconciliation processes. Experiences identified by the research respondents include Zimbabwe’s social, economic and political dynamics. Among them were: Political violations: Political violations in this study refer to harms committed in the interest of political motivations. The respondents pointed out the liberation struggle, early independence (Gukurahundi), and political violence spanning different electoral cycles, for example the 2000-2002, 2005 and 2007/8 as key violent political episodes. Participants at a dialogue meeting supported by HZT in Mutasa, Manicaland, 2016 24 RECONCILIATION PROCESSES IN ZIMBABWE