Zimbabwe orders schools to slash fees amid deepening crisis

ZIMBABWE’s government has ordered all state schools to slash their fees as it struggles with an economic crisis desperately crying out for massive foreign aid, a local official newspaper said yesterday.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told a Friday May Day rally a new unity government he formed with his rival President Robert Mugabe in February to try end a political and economic crisis was broke and could not meet union demands for higher wages.

Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail newspaper said Education Minister David Coltart had recommended state schools catering for a majority of Zimbabwean students should cut their fees when they open for a new term today because many parents could not afford them.