Zimbabwe heading for new economic crisis

Zimbabwe is heading for a new economic crisis which could see 1.5 million people face hunger this year.

Video report courtesy of ITV Africa Correspondent John Ray

In the past few weeks alone 20,000 workers have been made redundant and many are scraping by selling what they can on the streets.

But street vendors are often moved on by police and some so-called illegal markets have been burned to the ground.

Street vendor Knoxman Nkube told ITV News: "What do they expect people to do when you throw them out on the street?"

One market vendor who lost everything in the fire said it was "total destruction".

"You cannot live, children need to be fed, we need to pay our rent, we need to send our children to school, we need to live."

Opposition activist Dr Ibbo Mandaza said the country was a "nation in crisis".

President Robert Mugabe gave his first public address since the last big financial crisis in 2008.

At that time a single Zimbabwean egg famously cost 50 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

The country is not yet at that stage again but but critics say Mugabe, who blames Western sanctions and drought for the crisis, seems powerless to stop it.

Read more: Zimbabwe needs reform not familiar Mugabe rhetoric