GOKWE – KANA 1. CONSTITUENCY: GOKWE – KANA 2. PROVINCE: MIDLANDS  3. VENUE: KANA MISSION SCHOOL 4. DATE: 23 FEBRUARY 2010 5. PARTICIPANTS: No.: 79 Sex: 32% female Age: 17–94, average 41 years From: church representatives, youth, women, political activists, traditional leaders and government employees 6. RECOMMENDATIONS i. Institutional reform • There is need to deal effectively with institutions that are resistant to change in the country. “Shavi razuro ngaridzikame!” [“Yesterday’s spirit must calm down!”] Institutions and individuals that in the past participated in human rights atrocities are now making all sorts of noise against any attempts to address the past. These institutions must know that they belong to yesterday and therefore they must shut up and let transformation begin [political activists]. • There is too much power in the hands of the executive. This power continues to “germinate everywhere like mushrooms. Its tentacles interfere with every other organ of government”. These powers must be reduced and checked to ensure that they do not undermine the operation of other organs of government [political activists]. • Traditional leaders have become “a notorious political powerhouse in the rural areas, terrorizing villagers, calling for endless meetings, each time they feel like”. Traditional leaders have grown “taller than the law itself, commanding torture bases and giving instructions even to the police on who should and who should not be arrested”. They must return to the basics of leading all people, with no discrimination on the basis of political affiliation [political activists]. • Traditional leaders were not intentionally notorious but they were “placed between a rock and a hard place”. It was not their desire to prefer one group or another, but politicians made the exercise of traditional leadership difficult [traditional leaders]. • Traditional leaders require protection because they suffered greatly at the hands of politicians from both sides of the political divide [traditional leaders]. • If any genuine healing is to take place, there is need for reform of the media in Zimbabwe. The media is responsible for fuelling a culture of violence and spreading falsehoods. The reform must include repealing POSA and AIPPA [political activists]. • The security sector must be reformed. The current system has created a culture of impunity. Criminals are bragging that they are outside the bounds of the law, because the security sector is corrupt [political activists]. • There is need to weed out corruption and retrain the police force to ensure that the law becomes effective in punishing violations [youth group and women’s group]. Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report 115