Tobaiwa said he was beaten with a thick wooden stick last weekend for failing to attend a political reeducation meeting because he was at work.
"It was a terrifying experience. I thought they would kill me. I felt really angry. The beating was so thorough I could not walk for two days," Tobaiwa said.
The level of violence in any area depends on the commanders and liberation war veterans in charge of the local base. Some ZANU-PF officials say any means to keep Mugabe in power are justified. Others, used to spending their days in boardrooms or government offices, seem more uncomfortable with the violence.
One Harare-area commander, with his elegant suit, soft voice and smile lines around the eyes, almost winces when asked about the meeting in his area in which ruling party officials and war veterans decided that it was necessary to deploy "minimal use of force" to "help" people understand why they must keep Mugabe after 28 years in office.
His head tilts to the side. He smiles and almost answers the question. But not quite.
"We don't tell them [the youth militias] to use minimum use of violence. We just look aside when they go out and gather the people," he said, smiling. "Actually we don't talk about minimal use of violence -- we talk about encouraging people to vote the right way.
"It's like any war. Different commanders use different strategies."
At his base, he said, "we are able to talk and laugh and get people to loosen up.
"In other areas, the speeches may not be so eloquent. They may use threats and beat people up. Those areas are so regimented it's like a military camp."
Some fear that when the election is over, and ZANU-PF is no longer paying the militias, a new criminal class, trained to beat and kill people, will be unleashed.
"They will keep on doing the violence," said Ndaziweye, 60, a domestic worker forced to attend a reeducation meeting Sunday, when militia members and war veterans threatened to kill people who did not vote for Mugabe.
"They will jump our fences and beat us and steal our food and property and blankets."
Tendai said that with every beating he inflicts on someone, he feels he is also doing some invisible but irreversible damage to himself.
"We feel like victims, forced to kill innocent people who are fighting for their rights," he said. "This is causing permanent damage to us, mentally.
"We will remember this time for as long as we live."
