The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) has launched the second edition of a grassroots training manual on public debt. The booklet was unveiled in Harare at a reflective meeting held for ZIMCODD members, on debt sustainability measures for Zimbabwe. The launch coincided with the tenth anniversary of the social and economic justice coalition, which was established in year 2000.

Zimbabwe’s land issue has generated unprecedented debate nationally and internationally, largely polarised between supporters of radical land reform and supporters of market-oriented reforms, writes Grasian Mkodzongi. While it is ‘undeniable’ that Mugabe used land reform ‘to boost his political legitimacy’, how can one ‘justify the continued existence of a dualistic land ownership structure decades after independence, in a country whose struggle for liberation crystallised around the land issue?’, Mkodzongi asks.

Gado's cartoons this week feature a trouser-dropping Jacob Zuma appealing for sanctions on Zimbabwe to be dropped, and the Kenyan parliament's offer to pass President Obama's healthcare bill – at a cost.

The Government has unveiled the National Information Communication strategic plan that will run from 2010 to 2014, and is expected to usher the country into the global information "super highway".

Civil society organisations have warned of worsening human rights abuse at the hands of state security agents, explaining that in the last three months there has been an escalation in the number of threats, intimidation and harassment against its members.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Thursday that he was prepared to stand for re-election if asked to do so by his Zanu PF party. "If Zanu PF says yes, I will," 86-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, told journalists in a rare press conference. Elections are due in two years.

Mary Ndlovu paints a desolate picture of the Zimbabwe of now and its political future: ‘The “Unity Government” has stumbled from pillar to post, ending for the time being, paralysed in the intensive or perhaps terminal care unit of the political hospital.’ Ndlovu takes us through the events of the last year and argues that ZANU PF’s tactics have shifted from the defensive to the offensive. Analysing the various options, such as calls for elections now, Ndlovu finds strong reasons to eliminate each. But she ends on a note of hope: ‘Debate on the constitution has… sparked considerable interest and determination to participate. Hopefully… a more active citizenry will eventually evolve, bringing promise of an empowered society which will develop new strategies to put in place a democratic government.’

This latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, analyses the situation resulting from the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that broke the stalemate following failed 2008 presidential elections and led to formation of the unity government in February 2009. It concludes that all domestic signatories of the GPA, as well as the South African mediation, must embrace democratic transformation as the vital objective of the transition.

Gertrude Hambira, general secretary of Zimbabwe's General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union, has been forced into hiding following harrassment by the police. The International Union of Food workers is urging people to call on the Zimbabwean government to provide Hambira ‘with effective protection and to carry out a prompt, full and impartial investigation into the circumstances of her attack in her family home.’

Zimbabwean activist Tichaona Masiyambiri narrowly escaped death with the help of local police, after a gang of armed youths attacked him following his address to villagers as part of a civic education programme at Nhakiwa Shopping centre in Uzumba.

Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa interviews Freedom Nyamubaya, one of the few field operation commanders in Zimbabwe’s war of independence. She is now a writer and rural development activist. Makoni-Muchemwa finds Freedom shaped by her past: ‘If I weren’t in the struggle, I wouldn’t be the same person. It was an education in itself; it was managing to live with nothing.’ When asked about her past desire to start a political party in Zimbabwe, Freedom states: ‘Politics is no longer about any ideologies, or policies, it’s not about building the country. I would like to be remembered as somebody who contributed to the development of the youth, or the development of Zimbabwe.’

Zimbabwe's still-limping economy can provide few essential services, so children living along the border cross into South Africa to attend school during the day or even to see a doctor, often at great risk to their personal safety.

The double pressures of climate change and poverty threaten to make Africa one of the regions hardest hit by coming climate-related problems. Nowhere is that more evident than in Zimbabwe, where the urban poor already struggle to survive in a harsh economic climate.

The Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) is back in hiding this week after police raided the union’s offices on Wednesday. Gertrude Hambira fled to safety after five men and one woman, who identified themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, raided the union’s office in Harare apparently looking for her. Hambira, who wasn’t in the office at the time, is now in hiding fearing for her safety.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the fund said the country was still ineligible for loans until it had paid off more of the $1.3bn (£841m) it owes to creditors. In the meantime, Zimbabwe can take part in IMF decision-making.

Some Zanu PF PF youths on Wednesday detained freelance photo-journalist Andrison Manyere for filming a demonstration held in the capital, Harare. Manyere was seized at the corner of Fourth Street and Jason Moyo Avenue whilst covering the demonstration organized by the Zanu PF youths to protest against the imposition and maintenance of targeted travel sanctions on the party’s leaders.

The process of drafting a new Zimbabwean constitution has been further delayed, meaning the country’s new charter is now running seven months behind schedule. A co-leader of parliament’s constitutional committee Munyaradzi- Paul Mangwana told journalists in Harare this week that Zimbabwe would not have a new constitution before February 2011 at the earliest.

SADC tribunal rulings against the seizure of farmers land in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered. Judge Garth Rabie ruled in favour of white farmers - represented by AfriForum - who have argued that the seizure of their land without compensation was a human rights abuse.

James Kilgore discusses the background to his new novel,'We Are All Zimbabweans Now', the story of an American graduate history student who travels to Zimbabwe in the 1980s with an 'idealised picture of Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean notion of racial reconciliation'. The book attempts to provide a more 'nuanced' view of the country's history, says Kilgore, and invites readers, as its protagonist does, to interrogate their 'own assumptions and theories'.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the Zimbabwean authorities' repeated harassment and intimidation of "The Zimbabwean", a privately-owned newspaper that is edited in Britain and printed in South Africa.