The chaos over the Zig, Zimbabwe’s new currency, continues. As schools are set to open on Tuesday morning, parents and teachers are anxious.
The winter term is here, parents have invested in new uniforms, but the nation has no idea how the fees will be paid.
They are set in US dollars but can be converted and paid in local currency at government schools.
The problem is there is a shortage of the new Zigs, introduced last month – and Zimbabwe is very much a cash-based society at present.
In a major U-turn over the weekend, Reserve Bank Governor John Mushayavhanu declared that the old currency bond notes he had banished at the end of April could still be used – which would be good news had they not plummeted so much in value – $1 is now worth around 80,000 bond notes, a few weeks ago it was 5,000.
It is not only school fees that parents have to worry about but the transport to get them there, especially for those going to boarding schools, and children who need to travel long distances by local taxis to get to schools.
It is not clear whether these buses and taxis will be running as petrol stations are only accepting US dollars for fuel payments – and local operators are struggling to find the hard cash.