Mugabe's bitter troops close private schools

from the UKTimes

...A week after the scheduled beginning of the academic year, all state schools remain closed. They are not expected to reopen until at least the end of February. As far as the state is concerned, if its own schools are shut, then the private ones have no right to be open....
“Soldiers were at the gates telling the pupils to go away. They said that other children couldn’t go to school, so St George’s children should stay away until the government decided when term should begin.” ...

Army units have grown increasingly mutinous in recent weeks, infuriated by low wages and prone to run wild in Harare, stealing from street vendors and money changers. Their harassment of private pupils appeared to reflect their anger that their own children are being denied education.

Zimbabwe’s state education system, in which all schools charge small fees, is collapsing as many of the country’s 100,000 teachers move abroad....