City of Gweru Overview

Gweru is a city of about 200 000 inhabitants and like Kwekwe is located in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. However the city is superior to Kwekwe in population size, economy and general outlook. It is the capital of the Midlands Province and is at the boarder of the Matebeland region and Mashonaland region of Zimbabwe. The people of Gweru speak both Ndebele and Shona.

Politically the disturbances associated with Zimbabwe's history were tens of thousands of people were massucred by the government in the 80s also badly affected this city.


The city is connected to Harare the capital of Zimbabwe by an efficient road network and rail network that connects Harare and Bulawayo. Travellers from Harare to Bulawayo pass through Gweru. The city has a had a vibrant industrial sector before the decline of the Zimbabwean economy starting in year 2000. Bata shoe company is located in this city and exports its products to the region of southern Africa and beyond. Gweru is home to the famous Thornhill Air Force air base. It is a vibrant education hub with a number of reputable schools such as Thornhill High School, Midlands Christian College (MCC), Regina Mundi and Fletcher High School amongst others.

The recently opened Midlands State University (MSU) is also located in Gweru. The city holds many government offices decentralised from Harare to service the local community and Midlands in general. These would include the passport office where people travel from Kwekwe, Shurugwi and other surrounding areas to physically apply for passports. Suburbs and townships in the city include the famous Senga and Mkoba high density suburbs, Athlone and others.

The city has some attractive game reserves and dams such as Gwenhoro. Visitors coming to Gweru from harare or Bulawayo can only drive or come by train which has since become extremely unreliable due to obsolete equipment and infrastructural vandalism. Train services in Zimbabwe are run by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).

Commercial agriculture strives in and around Gweru including horticulture. Places to stay in this city will include hotels and lodges and short stay B&Bs. One outstanding and relatively new place to stay as one enters the city is The Village  [pictured] which offers neat overnight accommodation to travellers.

Just like many cities in Zimbabwe, the city also lost many of its residents who joined other Zimbabweans abroad atthe height of Zimbabwe's problems.

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