Sunday newspaper round-up: Zimbabwe, Budget, Merkel

It felt like a revolution. They came from all over the country and all walks of life. Young and old, opposition activists and party apparatchiks, white farmers and black war veterans, housewives and their maids. For years many of them had been on opposing sides, but yesterday they had one common objective. "Mugabe must go!" read the banners as thousands of Zimbabweans filled the streets of Harare draped in their red, yellow, green and black flag, playing music, dancing and hugging strangers. - The Sunday Times

Philip Hammond will use the budget this week to announce plans to build 300,000 homes every year — the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds. The chancellor has revealed that he will unveil billions of pounds of extra investment, plus new powers and planning rules to ensure construction firms start building on sites that already have planning permission. In an interview, Hammond said the government would stage an "intervention" because the market for developed land “is broken” with 270,000 unbuilt residential planning permissions in London alone. - The Sunday Times

Europe will be "damaged" if Mrs Merkel, regarded by many as the mother of Europe, fails to form a government from the ongoing coalition talks, according to a top EU official. The remarks from the EU's budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger come as the German Chancellor has struggled to strike a governing coalition deal. He said a failure to reach a deal would "damage Europe and strengthen the region's populists" as the bloc waits for its economic powerhouse to form a government. - Express on Sunday

Fast-growing digital bank Monzo is planning one of Britain’s biggest ever crowdfundings, paving a quick path to a stock market float, just months after receiving a full banking licence. Tom Blomfield, co-founder and chief executive, said the start-up wanted to raise up to £30m from the public ahead of a float in as little as two years' time. The ambitious plan comes after an explosion in customers at the East London-based bank which is now approaching half a million people using its app and hot coral payment cards. - The Sunday Telegraph

Rolls-Royce boss Warren East is ramping up his revival plan for the embattled engineer after putting a German components business on the auction block. The company is seeking buyers for L’Orange, which makes diesel injection technology for huge trucks and generators. Investment bankers from Goldman Sachs are handling the sale, which could reap as much as £300m for the FTSE 100 giant. - The Sunday Times

A vast chain of African petrol stations is to be floated on the London Stock Exchange in a deal valued at more than $3bn (£2.3bn). Vivo Energy, jointly owned by the giant oil trader Vitol and buyout firm Helios Investment Partners, will attempt a market debut next year. Operating about 1,800 Shell-branded forecourts across 16 African countries, it has hired Citi, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse to handle the planned offer. The deal would generate a substantial profit for London-based Vitol, which is run by Ian Taylor, a prominent Conservative Party donor. - The Sunday Times

Brexiteer Lord Bamford has waded back into the political debate, accusing the Government and lobby groups of ignoring the millions of small businesses that form the "backbone" of Britain. In a rare interview, the boss of manufacturing giant JCB said that senior politicians could have anticipated the UK's vote to quit the European Union if they had listened to views of the country's 5.4m private and family-owned firms. He also launched a fresh attack on the CBI, calling the lobby group a "waste of time". - The Sunday Telegraph

The editor-in-chief of the Mirror titles has indicated that their parent group will face deeper job losses across its 5,000-plus workforce if it fails to seal a £130m deal to buy Richard Desmond's Express and Star newspapers and celebrity magazine OK! Lloyd Embley also said Trinity Mirror was preparing to reveal an “embarrassing” gender pay gap with the enforced publication of official figures, because senior positions at the newspaper group are dominated by men. - Guardian on Sunday