Gwanda is a town in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. It is the capital of the province of

Matabeleland South Matabeleland South is a province in southwestern Zimbabwe. With a population of 683,893 as of the 2012 Zimbabwean census, it is the country's least populous province. After Matabeleland North, it is Zimbabwe's second-least densely populated p ...

, one of the ten administrative provinces in the country. It is also the district capital of

Gwanda District Gwanda District is located in Matabeleland South Province of Zimbabwe. Its administrative seat is Gwanda, the biggest city of the province. The main language spoken by the people from Gwanda is Sotho. The center is Gwanda Gwanda is a to ...

, one of the seven administrative districts in the province.

Location

The town is located , by road, south east of the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city. This location lies on the Bulawayo–Beitbridge Road and the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway. The town of Beitbridge, at Zimbabwe's border with the Republic of South Africa, lies approximately , further southeast on Highway A-6. The coordinates of Gwanda, Zimbabwe are: 20°56'20.0"S, 29°01'07.0"E (Latitude:-20.938889; Longitude:29.018611). Gwanda sits at an average elevation of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. Gwanda is known to have long, hot summers, and short, cool winters. Gwanda is also quite dry as compared to the rest of the country, and is therefore prone to drought.

Overview

Gwanda was founded in 1900 as a settlement of European gold miners and prospectors. Its name derives from that of a nearby hill known as Jahunda. It is located on the

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council ...

- Beitbridge road and the railway that runs south to

West Nicholson West Nicholson or Tshabezi is a town in the Matabeleland South Province of Zimbabwe. Location It is located in Gwanda District, along the Bulawayo–Beitbridge Highway, approximately , southeast of the town of Gwanda, where the district he ...

. The town is the a centre for Matebeleland South’s cattle ranching industry and also trades in agricultural produce. There are gold, asbestos, and chrome mines in the vicinity, and game reserves nearby. Stone Age implements have been found in the Gwalingemba Hills, which are located 32 miles (52 km) south of Gwanda. Gwanda is administratively run by the Municipality of Gwanda, whose jurisdiction covers 10 wards across the town. Gwanda is the location of the District headquarters of Gwanda District. It is also home to the Matabeleland South provincial offices of various government departments, which are mainly located at the government complex along 3rd Avenue, between Queen Street and Khartoum Street. The town has a provincial hospital, Gwanda Provincial Hospital, which serves as a referral centre for nearby smaller mission and district hospitals. Services provided include emergency medicine,

paediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

maternity ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gesta ...

, eye surgery, minor orthopaedic surgery, general surgery and an expanded immunisation program. The town is the chief centre for south-western

's cattle district and also trades in agricultural produce. There are asbestos, chromium and gold mines around Gwanda. The main stadium is called

Phelandaba Stadium Phelandaba Stadium is a stadium in Gwanda, Zimbabwe, which was built by the Gwanda Rural Council in 1974. The stadium was named by the founder of Gwanda Ramblers Football Club Gwanda is a town in Zimbabwe. It is the capital of the province ...

. It was home to the former Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League team, ''Njube Sundowns''. Financial services are provided by commercial banks, including

CBZ Bank Limited CBZ Bank Limited, also CBZ Bank, is a commercial bank in Zimbabwe. It is one of the financial services institutions licensed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the central bank and national banking regulator. Location The headquarters and main br ...

, Post Office Savings Bank, AgriBank Zimbabwe and ZB Bank Limited.

Population

According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 4,874. The town chiefs refused to acknowledge the results of the 1992 census as they felt they had been undercounted. Officially, that disputed figure was 10,565. In 2012, the national population census enumerated the towns population was at 20,226. Most residents of Gwanda are ethnically

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages * Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language Northern ...

, and isiNdebele and English are the languages most commonly spoken. There are also

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

and

Basuto The Sotho () people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho (), are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. They split into different ethnic groups over time, due to regional conflicts and colonialism, which resulted in the modern Basotho, who ...

peoples in Gwanda.

Notable people

The former president of

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

Rupiah Banda Rupiah Bwezani Banda (19 February 1937 – 11 March 2022) was a Zambian politician who served as the fourth president of Zambia from 2008 to 2011, taking over from Levy Mwanawasa, who died as the sitting president. Banda was an active participan ...

, was born in this town, in a place called Miko. Professor

Thomas Tlou Thomas Tlou (1 June 1932 – 28 June 2010) was a Botswana academic and historian, and former representative of Botswana at the United Nations. Tlou was born in Gwanda in the then Southern Rhodesia in 1932. Tlou studied at Luther College from 1 ...

of the

University of Botswana The University of Botswana, popularly known as UB, was established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana. The university has three campuses: one in the capital city Gaborone, one in Francistown, and another in Maun. Th ...

, former Botswana Ambassador to the U.N., was born in Gwanda. He was also co-author with

Alec Campbell Alexander William Campbell (26 February 1899 – 16 May 2002) was the final surviving Australian participant of the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War.Shaw, John"Alec Campbell, Last Anzac at Gallipoli, Dies at 103" ''The New York Ti ...

of ''History of Botswana''.

References

External links