Ngundu is a village in

Chivi District Chivi, or formerly Chibi, is a district in the Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe. The area was originally established as a mission station in 1894 by the Berlin Missionary Society under the name Chibi Mission. Geography Chivi is located in a semi-a ...

in Masvingo Province 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 Mozam ...

. Pre-1950 Ngundu Halt was a stopping point for the

Rhodesia Railways The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), formerly Rhodesia Railways, is a state-owned company in Zimbabwe that operates the country's national railway system. It is headquartered in the city of Bulawayo. In addition to the headquarters, it has ...

Road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

Motor Service, or RMS. There was a small roof topped structure with a secure door where the mailbag was dropped for

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

Estates and for other residents in the Lowveld. The road was tar strips on the Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) - Beit Bridge road, and dirt from the halt to Triangle.

Local bus In computer architecture, a local bus is a computer bus that connects directly, or almost directly, from the central processing unit (CPU) to one or more slots on the expansion bus. The significance of direct connection to the CPU is avoiding t ...

services stopped there and small traders selling

corn on the cob Corn on the cob is a culinary term for a cooked :wikt:ear#earofcorn, ear of sweet corn (maize) eaten directly off the corncob, cob. The ear is picked while the endosperm is in the "milk stage" so that the caryopsis, kernels are still tender. E ...

and other travel-related foods did a brisk trade when the buses stopped. Rufus Paul noted that it was a point at which there was a need for a

filling station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoli ...

and a country store. He applied to the Native

Commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

for a permit to build both and homes for himself and his staff, the NC allowed this, and for a small annual rent, £4.00, a four-

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

plot was allocated and Paul's Ngundu Store was born. This was about 1948. There was a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

in 1950. Many villagers were unable to reap for their household use, and they borrowed a bag of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

(corn) at a time as required. All bar one (who had a good reason) paid their

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

s back, something that impressed the Pauls immensely. A bond had been created with the locals. The store was nestled amongst m'sasa tree covered kopjies, and behind it was a huge drop into the lower

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

below. One could sit on a rock and observe the activities of the local folk as they went about their activities. There were many exotic flowering trees and flowers planted. Rufus Paul was a Seventh-Day Adventist and the store was closed sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Motorists who were short of fuel were given, free of charge, enough fuel to move on to the next filling station. Churches and schools run by the church were built with the aid of Rufus Paul. The store had a small clinic and a vehicle was on standby to ferry emergencies either to Lundi Mission, Chibi Clinic or Morgenster Mission, depending on their severity. The store was sold in about 1970 to Norman Richards who subsequently sold it. The writer has not any knowledge of the current owner. Ngundusberg resort was also created in 2020, 300m from Chiredzi turn off by the Mupasi Family Trust with the intention to sustain the vision of the Paul family, providing accommodation for the people travelling to the rest of Africa and carter for tourists coming to the largest inland lake of

(Tokwe-Mukosi) It is now a complete little town, electricity laid on, and services such as

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

, primary and secondary schools are present.

References

Populated places in Masvingo Province {{Zimbabwe-geo-stub