Students brew beer in Zimbabwe with cereal

Several boarding schools in Zimbabwe have banned breakfast cereals after it was discovered students have been using them to brew beer.

Three schools in the south of the country told parents ahead of the start of the new term earlier this week that oats and cereal made of sorghum would be confiscated if found on campus.

The Chronicle newspaper noted that: “Pupils reportedly mix the cereals with brown sugar and yeast and leave the mixture to ferment in the sun, creating a potent alcoholic mixture which the pupils drink right under the noses of school authorities.”

Parents of pupils at Tennyson Hlabangana high school in Bulawayo were apparently notified by text that popular cereals such as Mortive powdered cereal and oatmeal porridge should not be included in their children’s groceries.

There are concerns in Zimbabwe of an apparent growth in under-age drinking. Police in Bulawayo arrested 224 pupils some as young as 13 who were attending a “vuzu” party on the edge of the city last month.