US Edition "SUGAR DADDY" is the phrase on everyone's lips in the huddles of students gathered on the lawns of the University of Zimbabwe as they brace themselves for the next riot.
It is these rich men on the prowl for young mistresses who have inspired the latest outbreak of violence in the country, rather than the spiralling prices and collapsing grants brought about by President Robert Mugabe's regime. Over the past four days, riots have swept the campus, leaving one student dead. More than 30 have been arrested.
In a sign of the highly charged atmosphere in the capital, Harare, the touchpaper was lit when Tecla Tom, a first-year undergraduate, committed suicide last Thursday, the day after her 22nd birthday. Friends believe that she was driven to this by one of the "sugar daddies" who take advantage of the poverty of female students to entice them into a thinly veiled form of prostitution.
Mrs Tom left a note for her husband, Innocent, 27, that read: "I am sorry, the time has come." As news of her death spread, students declared the university closed to "sugar daddies". Cars entering the campus were stoned and one was turned upside-down.
The response from the riot police came in the early hours of Monday. Halls of residence were tear-gassed, an undergraduate, Batanai Hadzizi, was allegedly beaten to death by police, and students jumped out of second-storey windows in their panic to escape. It was the latest in a long line of heavy-handed police operations aimed at the student body, which supports the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
On Monday, the police were back, firing tear gas and shrapnel to disperse a demonstration. Florence Mutambo, 23, a law student, has frequently seen the men in expensive cars who visit the university after dark. "They are mainly 45 or 50 years old, they are always married and they come here looking for girlfriends," she said.
At least 25 per cent of Zimbabwean adults are HIV positive, so the liaisons are enormously risky. Miss Mutambo said: "In some cases there are genuine affairs. But 90 per cent of time, it's for the money. The situation as far as money is concerned is very bad for all of us."
Students receive a maximum grant of £90 per term. Three meals a day from the newly privatised university canteen cost £100 per term. The "sugar daddies" reward their youthful mistresses with mobile telephones, wads of cash, and sometimes their own dingy flat.
Priscilla Gumede, 23, an economics student, said: "Most of the men have Aids. They are coming here and infecting our girls with Aids." Mr Mugabe's regime is acutely aware of the risk of economic collapse spilling over into an explosion of urban unrest. The police have been ordered to meet any student protests with a draconian response. But if riots do engulf Harare, the cause may well be traced back to the middle-aged men who prowl the university campus by night.