MBERENGWA EAST, WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH 1. CONSTITUENCIES: 2. PROVINCE: 3. VENUES: 4. DATES: 5. PARTICIPANTS: MBERENGWA EAST, WEST, NORTH AND SOUTH MIDLANDS MATARUSE BUSINESS CENTRE (MBERENGWA EAST) PHOENIX BUSINESS CENTRE (MBERENGWA WEST) 20–21 JANUARY 2010 In the end, none of the Mberengwa meetings took place. 6. PROCEEDINGS i. The Mberengwa East Meeting a. Overview • The meeting was scheduled to take place on 20 January 2010 at Mataruse Business Centre. • The meeting had been cleared by the police. • The facilitators from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum were accompanied by two police officers. b. Events • Upon arrival at the venue of the meeting at the local business centre, the facilitators found about 70 participants waiting for the meeting to start. • The facilitators were informed by one of the local co-ordinators that they needed to see the councillor for the area before they could hold the meeting. • Upon arrival at the councillor’s residence, thirty minutes away from the venue, the councillor asked the facilitators to tell him about the nature of the meeting they wanted to hold. A copy of the agenda was handed to him. Once he had reviewed it, he announced that such a meeting could not take place anywhere in Mberengwa without clearance from the ZANU(PF) district chairperson. • According to the councillor, the agenda of the meeting was political in nature. He stated that the party that ruled Mberengwa was very protective of their space and such meetings could ruffle feathers and the leadership would not allow such a meeting to take place. He further stated that he was a very small fish in such matters and he feared for himself if he allowed the meeting to proceed. If the facilitators insisted, they could attempt to obtain permission from the ZANU(PF) chairperson for Mberengwa District. The councillor claimed that he personally was powerless. • At around 11 a.m. the facilitators departed from the councillor’s residence to go back to the local business centre to apologize to the participants who had been waiting for the meeting to start for the better part of the morning. • The facilitators then left for Zvishavane to locate the said chairperson. Eventually, the facilitators were able to reach him on his mobile phone. He told them that he was on his way to a place called Chegato; after that, he no longer was reachable on his mobile. As a result of this, and the fact that it was getting too late for the meeting to go ahead that day, the facilitators decided to plan the next meetings. Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report 117