That could be a problem for ZANU-PF: For most of the young shock troops, their main motivation is the hope of a quick dollar to feed their families, with food scarce and opportunities to get ahead almost nonexistent.
The camps were set up after ZANU-PF's defeat in the March 29 parliamentary and presidential elections. They provided a base from which to target the opposition and intimidate voters -- burning houses, displacing people and beating, maiming or killing activists.
Kindergartens, schools and houses were commandeered for the bases. Some outposts, deep in the bush and modeled on the bases of Zimbabwe's liberation war, consist of nothing more than a piece of land with a tent, a desk and a chair for the commander, with several hundred militia fighters standing guard.
In most of the bases across the country, young women have been forced to cook for the youth militias, serve them and be their sex slaves, according to young women and men forced to attend the camps daily.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the June 27 runoff vote because of the violence. But Mugabe, who finished second to Tsvangirai in March, pushed ahead with the runoff despite international condemnation. He was declared the winner soon afterward and hastily inaugurated.
The MDC reports many cases of unwanted pregnancies among victims of rape. Written testimonies by victims show that many times women were raped because they or their close relatives were MDC activists. However, the party does not have a tally of how many rapes have been reported in the political violence.
Asiatu's ordeal began one afternoon when 35 ZANU-PF militia members came to her house because her mother is an MDC member.
"I was eating and they kicked my food," she says. "They started beating me, saying I was an MDC member. They said I should be killed." Three days later they came at night and forced her to go to the base.
"I was just crying. I thought they wanted to kill me," she says.
To protect her, The Times is not disclosing the location of the base. She does not go by the name Asiatu in her community.
On her first day at the base, she says, she was severely beaten on her back, buttocks and the soles of her feet with wooden poles.
"They said they should leave me to faint in order to satisfy their bosses. They said they were 'treating' me to make me a ZANU-PF member."
After a week, the daily beatings stopped, but the rapes began.
