News stories by Ignatius Banda, page 12

Forty-year-old Thelma Dube was this month told by her long-time employer to stay home. She will be called back to work when business picks up. Her husband got the same instruction, as did hundreds of other workers at a textile company in Zimbabwe’s second largest city.

Cash-strapped residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city are digging in their heels and refusing to pay utility bills despite the municipality teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. At the heart of the dispute are dismal service delivery and the conundrum of using multiple currencies in an economy that boasts world record inflation.

The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) was until a few weeks ago - and for the first time since its inauguration half a century ago - on the verge of being postponed because of a lacklustre response from exhibitors to what was once southern Africa's premier showcase of trade opportunities.

Despite the crater-sized potholes that fill Bulawayo roads, Desmond Hikwa is not slowed down as he speeds across this city of more than two million transporting commuters from sunrise to sunset.

Zimbabwe's power sharing deal comes as the country's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) controlled urban councils are facing a multitude of challenges after years of what they claim is interference in the running of their affairs by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

The ZANU-PF government’s efforts to gain access to foreign exchange (also known as forex) by imposing an expensive licensing system on Zimbabwean enterprises, enforced with the threat of prosecution, is undermining one of the last remaining means of survival in the collapsing country.