Zimbabwe has ordered the suspension of lessons at boarding schools in five provinces likely to be affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy which is expected to make landfall in neighbouring Mozambique on Friday.
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said boarding schools in Harare Metropolitan, Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, Masvingo and Matabeleland South provinces should not open on Friday as part of measures to ensure the safety of students in these areas.
“Boarding schools should remain open but suspend lessons in the affected areas on Friday to reduce the movement of pupils and they should gather students in buildings or dormitories with secure roofs or spaces where they can get covering if the roof is blown off,” Mutsvangwa told journalists on Wednesday night.
Other measures adopted by the government include the setting up of evacuation committees in the five provinces as well as deployment of aid and medical supplies to government offices in some of the districts expected to be hardest hit by the cyclone.
The districts include Chimanimani, Chipinge, Chiredzi, Mwenezi, Beitbridge, Chivi, Masvingo rural, Zaka and Bikita, which are expected to receive localised heavy rains starting Thursday.
Cyclone Freddy is tracking its ways towards the East Africa coastline and is forecast to make landfall in Mozambique in the early hours of Friday.
Previous cyclones have claimed thousands of lives and left a trail of destruction in Mozambique and neighbouring countries such as Malawi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
JN/APA