REPORTER: Ginny Stein

On the border of South Africa and Zimbabwe, a man prepares for a potentially life-threatening assignment.

DEE: Everybody has to do their part to make sure that Zimbabwe's case is heard out there.

For his own safety, his identity must be kept secret. He's asked to be called 'Dee'. He is a trusted friend of mine, a man who has helped me make this crossing many times.

REPORTER: Is 5 billion the biggest? Oh, no, you've got 25 billions.

As Zimbabwe slides deeper into anarchy and with the government and security forces now targeting the media, Dee has decided that this time it's simply too dangerous for me to travel with him. Instead, he will cross to his country alone carrying my hidden camera. Dee is well aware of the dangers of this assignment and of the consequences if he's caught.

DEE: Carrying a camera is a risk because they automatically become suspicious. "Why is he carrying a camera? Is he a journalist? What is he up to?" So everything is risky with this job.

But it's a risk he's prepared to take for the sake of his country.

DEE: The information has to go out. Information has to go out, the people have to understand, the Zimbabwean Government has to understand that it is being watched - everybody knows what they are doing. In that way one hopes that they will come to their senses.

This is what he is going home to. Today, in one of the capital Harare's main cemeteries two activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change are making their final journey.

CROWD (Translation): Be a hero, don’t lie low for too long. If you stay low, you won’t achieve anything. What happened in the past finishes with Mugabe. Let’s be heroes and watch out for our enemies! Hosannah, I have been stabbed, stabbed, stabbed in the heart, stabbed in the heart by ZANU....Tsvangirai...where are you while we are being stabbed, stabbed in the heart by ZANU?

Godfrey Kauzani and Cain Nyevhe are given a heroes' burial by the MDC. Slain trying to bring change to their country, party loyalists, between them they'd been arrested more than 40 times over the years for their political beliefs. The final time they were taken away it was by men wearing masks, their badly beaten bodies found four days later. In the current climate of retribution, many have stayed away, too frightened to be seen here.

MAN (Translation): They are afraid to come here today because of ZANU. Should we say..Is this a ..system? Is that a representation, a dispensation, that we can trust? We are even afraid to bury the deceased. Thank you..I am full of anger.

Since the first round of voting in March, Mugabe's supporters have killed more than 80 people. 200 are missing, more than 3,000 hospitalised and tens of thousands have fled their homes. Some of the MDC's wounded have been given refuge in this church outside of the capital. This man was one of four who were attacked.

JULIUS (Translation): I am from the same neighbourhood, Area 4. One person had both arms broken, another had an arm broken and was struck with an axe on the back of his head. They are sitting just around the corner.

Their plaster casts the new calling card of the ruling party's thugs.

JULIUS (Translation): Our crime was that we voted for the MDC. We were beaten because they said we wasted our votes and sold out the country.

Julius comes from a small rural village. He survived a 2-day torture session at the hands of local ZANU-PF loyalists. First they tried to burn him alive in his own hut, then they knocked him unconscious. When came to, he and three others were taken away to be drowned.

JULIUS (Translation): It was tough as I thought it was the end of my life. So..it was scary getting into the dam, but we had no option except jumping into the water. The beating was so severe we chose to jump in. We could tell that they intended to kill us, so we got in, realising we couldn’t do anything else. If we were going to die, we were going to die.

Julius and his brother survived. His brother-in-law did not. He died from the beating meted out by ZANU-PF supporters. And amongst those attackers were members of their own family. Neither he nor his brother can go home – his village has turned on itself.

DEE (Translation): Were your relatives there when you were beaten?

JULIUS (Translation): Yes they were there. Some were from my village, I know their names, we live in the same community. I used to socialise with them and then they beat us up. I know them.

The blame for most of the political violence is directed at party supporters loyal to Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. One man who understands well the strategy at play in Zimbabwe is ruling party defector and former presidential candidate Simba Makoni. The former finance minister was knocked out of the political contest in the first round of voting in March.

SIMBA MAKONI, FORMER FINANCE MINISTER: I did not win, I am disappointed but I am gratified that my participation in this election at the very least stopped Mugabe winning.

He says right now there is one tactic at play. Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF is attempting to secure victory through brute force and torture.

SIMBA MAKONI: This is the campaign they are waging right now, this is the campaign they have been waging since the middle of April. Having read the outcome of the March 29 results as against ZANU-PF in the house of assembly and in the senate, and with the presidential outcome as well, they have decided to force the people to support Mugabe, even though the people yearn for change.

Most affected by the violence are those in rural areas. Out of sight, with few witnesses and no way to get help. Dee is heading to a village in Masvingo Province where opposition support has traditionally been strong. It's also meant that villagers here have been targeted.

DEE: Now we are going to Manica bridge, an area where most MDC people here have been victimised. The guy I am going with here is telling me that there has been a lot of arson, burning down of property, beatings, lootings and even rape, to innocent victims. I'm just going to show you a little extent of the violence being meted on the opposition by the ruling party.

So few are vehicles in rural areas, each one that passes through is noticed. To stay too long is to attract attention.

DEE: The driver I am going with makes sure he turns around the car so that if we have to escape it will be easy.

In this village, the men have come together to offer each other protection. Albert - not his real name - is the MDC's ward chairman. But it was his role as an election observer that brought him to the attention of Robert Mugabe's loyalists.

ALBERT: They started to throw stones in my house, so, fearing that they would injure my family I come out and faced them then they started to beat me using different weapons - they were holding metal axes and logs and ties of rubber strips. Ah, they've made me even braver. Because all these injuries they've inflicted on me - they've branded me - I am even braver and I am going to vote for MDC and I am not going to change my mind though they've beaten me.

At a local hospital, Dee finds most patients too scared to speak. This man, a polling officer, a public servant who was beaten in front of his entire village, was brave enough to talk but too fearful of retribution to be identified.

PATIENT: Then they started beating me all over my body, all over my head, my backbone, my legs and my feet. Then I could not even turn because the spare wheel was too heavy on my neck. I want the world to know that it is true that people are being beaten by ZANU-PF, people are being killed by ZANU-PF.

Kerry Kay is the welfare officer for Zimbabwe's opposition MDC party. Her husband, Iain Kay, a long-time opposition MP, won a seat in the March election. He was taken to jail a fortnight ago. Now she is in hiding. She agrees to speak with Dee as long as it takes place in public and in a car so she can get away if needed.

KERRY KAY: It's ludicrous, but we knew that come the elections, before and after, that trumped-up charges would be levelled against either or both of us because this is what has happened for the past 10 years.

This is where her husband is currently being held. It's a rural prison two hours drive from Harare. Dee has travelled here with Kerry's son, David. His father, Iain Kay, is due to be released today.

DEE: This is Murewa prison where Iain Kay is being held. We are just waiting for him to go out, to come out. We haven't been allowed inside. Even his son is still sitting outside. Just see how it goes from here.

But bureaucracy takes time and the paperwork for his release moves slowly. 24 hours after the order is granted Iain Kay is back in Harare and ready to continue the campaign.

IAIN KAY, MDC MP ELECT: It certainly doesn't dampen my spirit. But it does make it a lot more difficult because most of the MDC leadership has been threatened in some way or another, some have been incarcerated, some have been abducted, some murdered, a lot of them beaten and a lot more intimated, so they have actually left their areas. So it does make it more difficult but it certainly does not dampen the spirit but it does make it a lot more difficult.

Kerry Kay and Dee are on their way to meet two men whose lives hang in the balance. Both men have third-degree burns to almost 50% of their bodies. In this hospital there is a burns unit but almost no medication. As MDC welfare officer, Kerry Kay's job is to find what she can - this time it's burns cream.

KERRY KAY: I'm sure one of these pots will not last very long when you see the extent of the burns. And also when I came here last week, when they lifted up the blankets on the cage and showed me their legs you could smell the burnt flesh.

As violence escalates, an old terror tactic has been revived - burning people alive.

KERRY KAY: How are you feeling? Terrible?

BURNT MAN (Translation): My arms, my legs, my stomach, up to my head. And also my neck. They are worse, I am still seriously ill. They set us alight and then left us for dead. They just set fire to us and then ran away.

DEE (Translation): How did you manage to get out?

BURNT MAN (Translation): How did we get out? I started punching the door until the door gave way, it didn’t take too long, I ran towards the door and got outside and when I was outside I fell down onto a place where there was fire , I caught fire and my whole arm and my whole side were burning.

DEE (Translation): Mrs Kay has brought you some medicine for your wounds, I’ve heard there is no medicine here.

KERRY KAY: Are you in pain?

They say armed men wearing riot police uniforms were responsible for this attack. First they firebombed the rural MDC office in which they were working, then they began shooting into the building. Two men are dead, two are missing and it's not known whether these men will survive.

KERRY KAY: We are going to get you right - I've bought you some more mashonga for you, hey. OK. I've given it to the sister.

They fear that even here in hospital their attackers may come back to get them.

BURNT MAN (Translation): I can’t talk about it now. I am afraid, those people said if they find us they will do this to us again.

Dee is asked by this patient to be shown his injuries. He takes out the camera with a viewing screen and films as this man sees for the first time how badly burnt he is.

DEE (Translation): Is there anything that you want to say on camera?

BURNT MAN (Translation): My injuries are most terrible. Everywhere the injuries are bad. I must tell you..I was not expecting such a ..thing. I have said everything there is.

For Kerry Kay and Dee, coming face to face with this violence exacts an emotional toll.

KERRY KAY: The suffering... You can't describe it.

DEE: You are seeing how serious it is - right now you are crying. It is really bad.

KERRY KAY: I cried when I came here the other day and I mean... How do you comfort somebody who is - 50% of his body, he has got third degree-burns, just because he voted for the party of his choice, and for the president of his choice.