Nine Zimbabwean human rights activists and others tortured in custody are suing government officials for $500m (£314m), their lawyers have said. Jestina Mukoko and eight others are suing the police commissioner, a cabinet minister and police officers.

Zimbabwe's economy is projected to grow by 3.7 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, the first expansion since 1997. The IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook published on Thursday did not give reasons for its assessment. It forecast that growth in the southern African nation's gross domestic product would accelerate to 6 percent in 2010.

The Zimbabwe Social Forum (ZSF) will be hosting the 5th edition of its annual commemoration in Harare, on the 2nd of October 2009. The theme for this year’s activities is, “Reclaiming the Political Transition for People-Centered Governance; and Sustainable Social and Economic Reform.”

A comprehensive land audit to establish who owns what after almost a decade of often chaotic land transfers in Zimbabwe is being stalled by a lack of money. President Robert Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme in 2000 to redistribute white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks.

The United Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) on Monday availed US$70 million to Zimbabwe&s under-funded education sector that is currently reeling under a two-week-old strike by teachers across the country. "The government of Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children's Education Fund and the international donor community unveiled a US$70 million partnership through the Educational Transition Fund," UNICEF said in a statement.

It was in many ways a shotgun marriage, except that both the parties in Zimbabwe's unity government were equally unwilling. On 15 September 2008 President Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway MDC faction, signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA), paving the way for the unity government to be established in February 2009.

Zimbabwe's prime minister has accused the country's president, Robert Mugabe, of violating terms of their power-sharing agreement. Morgan Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters marking his Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) 10th anniversary on Sunday that despite guarantees of political freedoms in the unity deal, Mugabe's Zanu-PF party continued to persecute MDC supporters.

Media watchdog, the Media Institute for Southern Africa – Zimbabwe, has expressed grave concern over the upsurge of hate speech against the private media and perceived opponents, by members of ZANU PF and the state controlled media. Earlier this week army commander, Lieutenant-General Phillip Valerio Sibanda, berated foreign based Zimbabwean radio stations, accusing them of being at war with Zimbabwe and urged the military to ‘guard against them’. This has been widely seen as meaning that journalists broadcasting into Zimbabwe are legitimate military targets because they threaten the state.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday he had blocked possible "unprocedural use" of IMF aid allocated to the country under a global assistance agreement for member states hit by a global crisis. Biti dismissed as "rubbish" reports in state media that he had written to the International Monetary Fund effectively rejecting over $500 million in IMF special drawing rights extended to Zimbabwe because Harare has external debts of about $5.7 billion.

Zimbabwe's minerals sector could attract investments of up to $16 billion once a more conducive business environment is in place, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said. That could help boost gross domestic product by $3 billion per year, Tsvangirai said.

President Robert Mugabe has lashed out at Western sanctions against him, condemning "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, on the eve of a landmark European Union visit. "Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others? That's why we say down with you. We have not invited these bloody whites. They want to poke their nose into our own affairs. Refuse that," he said.

August saw the continuation of the chaos in Zimbabwe, with ever more breaches of the GPA being recorded, the majority of which fell into the following categories:
* wanton politically motivated violence, or violence driven by politicians or petty officials, * harassment, and deprivation of freedom, of individuals through contrived arrests on spurious charges, * widespread corruption involving senior public and uniformed figures, * the deprivation of the right to Freedom of Expression, and the abuse thereof, * violent, unconstitutional, invasions and seizures of property and farms, and * deliberate attempts to derail the Constitution-making process.

The Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) is seeking a competent, experienced and self motivated individual for the position of Programme Assistant – Gender HIV & Aids (GHIVA) Programme. WRCN is offering a competitive package for the candidate with the right qualifications and experience. Applications with certified copies of certificates, CV and other relevant documents must clearly state the position applied for and should be submitted no later than 6th September 2009.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/448/58607_Trial_of_Mugabe_tmb… Pucherova reviews Chielo Zona Eze’s novel, The Trial of Robert Mugabe, published by Okri Books on 15 September, in which Steve Biko and writers Yvonne Vera and Dambudzo Marechera are among the members of a divine jury helping God decide Zimbabwean President Mugabe’s fate on the day of judgement. Although the book falls ‘rather too easily to sentimentality’, its service to Zimbabwe’s ‘collective healing should not be undervalued’, says Pucherova. It may, after all, ‘be the only trial Mugabe is ever called on to stand.’

The International Monetary Fund has given Zimbabwe a windfall of more than US$500 million (Sh39bn) after almost a decade of financial restrictions imposed on the economically troubled country. This follows the injection of US$283 billion into the global economy to boost member countries dwindling foreign exchange reserves due to recession.

Greed on the part of those in authority is the primary driver of the crisis in Zimbabwe, Dewa Mavhinga tells Pambazuka News. Political power is the vehicle these people use to satisfy this greed and that is why they are ‘prepared to shed blood’ to retain it, Mavhinga argues. Until politicians of this kind are removed from office, says Mavhinga, ‘charting a new political direction for Zimbabwe will remain a pipe dream’.

"Umvuthwandaba Voice" meaning The End of Revelations is a publication that pushes the agenda of new formation of the Zimbabwean politics. In a sense that the youth of Zimbabwe would want to riot now and cause a dramatic change in the leadership of any of the front political parties, it might be Zapu, Mdc, and Zanu PF. This has been brought about the youths that are in UK, South Africa and Botswana. In our view we need to see a man or woman age below 35yrs of Age taking the podium as the new President of Zimbabwe.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on Friday granted Zimbabwe $37.9 million, resuming support after getting assurances from the new unity government that the money would not be misused. The fund said last year Zimbabwe's central bank had confiscated $7.3 million in 2007 meant for health programmes. The central bank has since returned the money, Global Fund officials said.

Zimbabwe has failed to remove its armed forces from the diamond fields in Marange and to end related human rights abuses there, Human Rights Watch has said. As a result, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) should suspend Zimbabwe immediately. The KPCS, an international group governing the global diamond industry, sent a review mission to Marange in late June 2009 to assess Zimbabwe's compliance with the group's standards, which require diamonds to be lawfully mined, documented, and exported by participant countries.

Zimbabwean journalists on 28 July 2009 launched the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights (ZJHR) as part of efforts to curb violations of media freedom and the abuse of journalists’ professional rights with impunity. Speaking at the launch ceremony at the Harare press club, The Quill, ZJHR spokesperson Dumisani Muleya, said the organisation was moulded along the lines of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).