‘Electricity can go anytime here’: how Zimbabwe’s iron men ran out of steam

Livelihoods are on the line with outages of up to 17 hours a day as the country's ageing power plants struggle to cope

Inside a grimy flat in the heart of Mbare, one of Zimbabwe's oldest townships, steam billows from a hissing iron.

It is 7am and Nhamo Chari, 42, is racing to finish ironing a client's clothes before the power cuts out.