The torture trial of a Norton MDC activist, that will see top ZANU PF officials face questioning, has been postponed until later this month.

Mapfumo Garutsa was abducted in November 2008 and held incommunicado for 22 days, on claims that he committed acts of terrorism and banditry. His captors accused him of bombing two bridges, police stations, and undergoing training in Botswana. Garutsa says he was repeatedly assaulted and denied food during his ordeal, and he is now demanding close to $200,000 from top government officials.

Home Affairs co-Minister's Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and former State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa have all been listed in Garutsa's case. The activist is also claiming damages from police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, Prisons Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi, Happyton Bonyongwe, Director General of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi (Assistant Director of the CIO) and senior police officers, identified as Senior Assistant Commissioner Nyathi, Chief Superintendent Makedenge, Detective Chief Inspector Mpofu, Chief Superintendent Magwenzi, Superintendent Joel Shasha Tenderere and Superintendent Regis Takaitei.

Garutsa's trial was set to get underway on Monday, but newly appointed Judge President George Chiweshe, who is a known Mugabe loyalist, postponed the matter until September 13. The case will now be heard along with that of 17 other abductees, including human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who are suing the ministers and security officials for more than $20 million.

The senior officials are also facing legal action from a Harare woman who is personally seeking more than $3 million in damages, after being severely assaulted by police at the time of the abductions. Shamiso Nziramasanga was four months pregnant when she was ordered to report to Mt Hampden Police Station in 2008. She was severely assaulted by a policeman identified only as Constable Bako, and threatened with further violence if she reported the assault. A few days later she was admitted to hospital in severe pain, where doctors found that her uterus had ruptured from the beatings she endured. She lost her baby and also had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy. He case has also been grouped together with that of the 18 abductees and will be heard later this month.

The group of 18 abductees disappeared 10 weeks after Morgan Tsvangirai signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) which formed the unity government and offered Zimbabweans a glimpse of change. Rights groups say the shocking details of torture and impunity accompanying such cases provide a compelling case for the coalition government to urgently undertake security sector reforms as dictated by the GPA. But almost two years since that agreement was signed, there is still no meaningful change.

It is now also 17 days since a regional summit of government leaders endorsed a plan to get the stalled unity government working. That plan was meant to see 24 outstanding issues of the GPA implemented within 30 days, but 17 days since then, nothing has been done.