Capital of Zimbabwe

Harare The Sunshine City

The capital of Zimbabwe is Harare - also once known as sunshine city. Harare laterally means the city that never sleeps. This used to be the case in the 80s and 90s. Due to the economic degradation which persisted for far too long the city sleeps indeed. Back then there was much night activity which kept the city's residents and visitors busy round the clock. The most spoken language in Harare is Shona (local) and English even though official languages in Zimbabwe include the two and Ndebele.

The capital city of Zimbabwe used to be Salisbury back in the 70s when Zimbabwe itself was called Rhodesia. Harare as it is now known is a special city to the Zimbabwe people as it is the center of commerce and business. It hosts the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) the only stock market in Zimbabwe. It is home to country head offices of international banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank and Standard Bank.

Harare is also home to numerous international embassies including the United States, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Netherlands, UK amongst others. Most of the embassies support poverty reduction programmes as well as human rights and governance programs in Zimbabwe.

As the capital city of Zimbabwe, it is a melting point of many nationals especially African nationals from the DRC, Ghana and Nigeria. Most of the foreign nationals have come into Harare as entrepreneurs opening small businesses such as car dealership, car parts dealership, groceries and clothing. in most cases local staff is employed.

The city of Harare itself is run by the City of Harare Council which is headed by a non-executive mayor of the opposition party MDC (which is now in the inclusive government). With a population of over 2 million Harare the capital city of Zimbabwe has in recent years faced serious infrastructural challenges. Certain parts of the city have endured years without running tap water due to broken pipes, machinery and limited electricity to pump water to these outlaying residential areas.

Due to poor water supplies the city amongst other cities in Zimbabwe was hit by a serious cholera outbreak that killed thousands of people and infected tens of thousands. Due to economically propelled cross border travel originating from Harare into South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia cholera cases were also reported in these countries with South Africa most hit.

Due to limited or nonexistent maintenance, many roads in the capital of Zimbabwe developed serious potholes which made it difficult for vehicle easy passage. Many routes were left inaccessible in the city. The city council also faced a number of legal cases of individuals suing the city for damage to vehicles. Traffic lights were also left to collapse with most intersections left uncontrolled. The problem being two fold; poor electricity supply and lack of repairs to the traffic lights. A project to replace all city traffic lights with solar powered ones abruptly stopped under unclear circumstances suspiciously linked to corruption and a general lack of transparency.

Picture shows a clamped car for parking without a parking disk. To get the car released will cost US$30.00 and the inconvenience of looking for the city council parking officers all over the place to undo this unpleasant work! A parking disk costs US$1.00 lasting for 1 Hour.



Places to Eat in Harare


Most people who come for holiday in Zimbabwe find numerous eat out places. In recent years there has been remarkable sprouting of restaurants and eat outs in and around the city. There is a dedicated eat out website with Harare restaurants. Statistical information is difficult to come by but a fair estimation will be about 5000 - 8000 people eat out every evening in Harare in restaurants this excludes fast food.

Places to Sleep in Harare

There are numerous hotels in the capital of Zimbabwe. These range from three star to five star hotels. The top of the range hotel is Meikles Hotel located right in the CBD and often used by international business executives. Micheal Jackson occupied the entire floor on his only visit to Harare a some years before his passing.  Other hotels include Crowne Plaza Hotel, Rainbow Towers (formerly Sheraton Hotel) and Holiday Inn. There are other smaller hotels and lodges which are relatively of good standard.

Security in Harare

Harare is a relatively secure city during the day and may becoming rather risky at night more so late night. Visitors often prefer to go out at night accompanied by a local who knows the night places to visit without increased risk. During the day visitors may find it worthwhile to keep all belongings secure.

Public transportation

Public transportation in Harare is very poor. Most transportation is operated by individual entrepreneurs which run small buses commonly known as combiz. These are not reliable as they do not follow any time-table and are often is a very bad state. Many visitors find it very difficult to keep up with this kind of transportation and unprofessional service and would rather rely on registered professional city taxis or cabs. Many hotels however have own airport shuttles that pick up expected visitors from the airport.

General Political Tips

When in the capital of Zimbabwe or any other place in Zimbabwe for that matter avoid openly communicating your political views especially as a visitor. Even when drawn into political conversation avoid if you can or at worst maintain neutrality through out or show total disorientation. When cornered a simple statement like  "Am here because I have great confidence in Zimbabwe" will save you a lot of trouble. Zimbabwe has a painful history of political violence

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