ii. The Mberengwa West Meeting a. Overview • The Mberengwa West consultative meeting was scheduled to take place on 21 January 2010 at the Phoenix Business Centre in a village called Chizungu. • The meeting had been cleared by the police. • After the experiences in Mberengwa East, the facilitators from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum decided to visit the local councillor the day before the meeting. b. Events • The outreach team met the councillor at the Phoenix Business Centre. Upon review of the agenda of the meeting, the councillor said that he was not comfortable to proceed. He then invited someone from the ZANU(PF) leadership structures and another councillor of the neighbouring Ward 34 for further consultation. The three stated that such meetings could not take place in Mberengwa unless there was special clearance from the MPs. • The facilitators were given the phone numbers for the two local MPs to seek clearance for the meeting from them. At that point, the facilitators decided to go back to Zvishavane as it had become clear to them that those in power in the area were not supportive of meetings on issues such as transitional justice. The political atmosphere was not conducive to open discussion and the objectives of the meetings could not be achieved, even if the meetings had received “political clearance”. 7. Observations • Mberengwa is one of the areas which, according to information obtained by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, was hardest hit by political violence. • There are no Human Rights NGOs working in Mberengwa. 118 Taking Transitional Justice to the People – Outreach Report