were not done in good faith, with vocal residents reporting victimisation. The same challenges bedevilling national level governance processes have cascaded to local governance processes with the end result being increased risk aversion among citizens. 3.2 Culture of fear The political climate in Zimbabwe is saturated with fear. Citizens fear both the unknown and known consequences of their free expression. Several respondents indicated that Zimbabwe has freedom of expression but not “freedom after expression”. Many people in my area were beaten up for trying to speak their mind. We were threatened that if we didn’t vote the “right” way our property would be seized. Itai Dzamara disappeared and people are now scared. People are victimised for example Dzamara and Chizuze went missing because they were vocal. When stay-aways are called for some don’t heed the call because of fear. Others do not like to be involved because of personal experiences or because of what happened to others. The big chefs from the government complex disappeared, what about us the “mujingaregomos” The environment is too volatile to express one’s opinion. My grandmother warned me that if did not attend the 21st February Movement celebrations something bad would happen to me Zimbabweans are risk averse because of fear stemming from previous events. Past experiences with abduction of dissenting voices have socialised people into living under a culture of fear. People have become socialised into pairing expressing oneself with expressing views about politics, even if expressing views on non-political issues such as service delivery. The association of politics with the expression of citizen voice has meant that conflation leads to the almost automatic assumption that expressing oneself leads to violence, victimisation, and the possibility of being abducted and disappearing without trace. Resultantly, young people regarded themselves as risk averse and expressed that they were not risk takers. A number of the respondents indicated that they were once risk takers in the past but had stopped doing so, arguing that the election outcome is always biased and hence they saw no point in taking risks anymore. Several respondents detailed how they expressed themselves freely before the 2008 but were disappointed that both the 2008 and 2013 election results did not bring about the change they desired. After cost-benefit analyses and reflection, many people decided that the risks taken in 2008 were not worth anything as the result was the same. The youth respondents affirmed: Some respondents indicated that they feared participating in demonstrations because, even though demonstrations are allowed by the law, they always turned violent in the end, either because of demonstrators’ actions or the police reaction. Citizens are afraid of this violence, and, in one discussion, participants cited a recent demonstration which began peacefully but turned violent, and a child died because of the commotion resulting from the firing of teargas canisters by the police. The systematic abuse and intimidation of dissenting voices has also had the effect of quietening citizen voices. According to respondents, the fear gripping communities is not innate but is instilled through repeated exposure to political violence and 5