Fearful villagers in Chipinge and Nyanga have devised a whistle strategy to combat increasing attacks from ZANU PF thugs and war vets, as the police standby, refusing to come to their aid.

Douglas Mwonzora, the national co-chairperson of the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee in Zimbabwe (COPAC), said on Monday that locals were fed up of being harassed at outreach meetings and have resorted to citizen action.

"Local people have now devised this strategy of whistling, so that they mobilize each other in the event of an unlawful attack. This is because the attacks are being done by very few people who do not have the local support. There is strength in numbers," he said.

According to Mwonzora the plan is that: "Once a person is attacked or an attack is imminent, they whistle, those who hear the whistle also whistle while advancing towards the location of the first whistle, so there will be a lot of whistling. Firstly it puts off the attacker and confuses the attacker. It then mobilizes people towards the person being attacked," he explained.

On arrival at the scene of violence locals hold down the attackers and also take note of who they are. Then they are taken to a police station and the hope is that the police will actually do something.

Over the past weeks, war vets and ZANU PF militia were reported to be terrorising locals in Chipinge and Masvingo province, beating up MDC members and those believed to be opposed to Robert Mugabe. War vet leader Jabalunai Sibanda was reportedly a key figure in targeting people who wanted to speak freely during the ongoing constitutional outreach.

The police are supporting the ZANU PF attackers by refusing to arrest them for unlawful acts and violence, and it is not surprising that locals have now resorted to devising their own scheme to arrest the political thugs.

This citizen justice was put into practice over the weekend when locals held down Mugabe supporters who became violent, according to Munzora.

"Over the weekend I was having a rally in Nyanga North. Before I arrived, a group of seven ZANU PF people wielding axes went to the gathering and ordered everyone to disperse. They started attacking people with axes. The people then retaliated and subdued them. They were then handed over to the police," he said.

The scheme will be important for people in Chipinge, where the violence continues. A constitutional outreach meeting in the area had to be aborted on Saturday after two MDC members were assaulted by ZANU PF thugs and then arrested by police, according to reports.

MDC-T Provincial spokesperson and Makoni South MP Pishayi Muchauraya said: "We had a meeting at the Checheche business centre which was aborted after some ZANU PF militia attacked two MDC members of that ward, Mr Charles Alone Chiunke and Charles Chovhi."

"The attacked people are now in Mutare where they are being attended by doctors. Charles Alone is still bleeding from the ear at the hospital. What is surprising is that when we were attending to these people who were injured, some police officers from Checheche actually had to arrest these injured people and then fined them $20 each as an admission of guilt fine and which crimes they commit we don't know. Just being beaten, it becomes a crime."