Water shortages have worsened in Zimbabwe - despite torrential rains and flooding - with guests at the capital’s top hotels forced to wash in swimming pool water. The lack of uniforms and supplies also overshadowed the start of the new school year.

Parents at one store in downtown Harare were told on Monday that school shoes were out of stock. But black market dealers were offering them for Z$80m (about $40 at the dominant illegal exchange rate) at a street market in the western township of Mbare.

Margaret Boora, a single mother, said she couldn’t raise the Z$400m ($200) for fees, exercise books and a uniform for her daughter’s first term at high school. She earns Z$30m ($15) a month as an office janitor, the average wage of unskilled workers.

‘There are no cheaper schools’

She said: “I don’t know what to do. It is not possible for me to find the money.” A blazer and a hat with a school badge alone were priced at Z$145m ($72), nearly five times her monthly take-home pay. There were no cheaper schools within walking distance in her area and bus fares cost more than $1 a day.

She said her daughter would stay away from school unless dress regulations were relaxed. School authorities said they were awaiting instructions from the Education Ministry. In recent months, teachers had reported growing absenteeism, which was expected to worsen when schools re-open on Tuesday.

Independent Harare economist John Robertson said: “A great many children won’t get back this term. Earnings have not kept up with prices. The futures’ of countless numbers of young people are being destroyed.”

Govt ordered a price freeze

Official inflation was estimated at about 24 000% but independent financial institutions put real inflation closer to 150 000%.

The nation was facing acute shortages of food, hard currency and gasoline in the economic meltdown that began in 2000 with the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in the former regional breadbasket.

A price freeze ordered by the government in June left store shelves bare of most basic goods, but the freeze was eased in phases to restore the viability of producers and businesses. But supplies of goods had remained erratic.

In the past month, Zimbabweans also faced chronic shortages of local cash. Lines outside banks and cash machines were a daily occurrence, along with power and water outages.

The state water utility said on Sunday that power outages shut down its main water treatment plant outside Harare, cutting off water supplies to large swathes of the capital and the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, 25km to the south, that could last a week. News 24

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