Willowvale is the name of an

industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban spra ...

in the South West of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

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 ...

. The area was a popular suburb for working class

Southern European Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alba ...

immigrants in the post war era but today is home to mostly black Zimbabweans and the descendants of

Malawian This article is about the demographic features of the population of Malawi, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Malawi de ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

an and

Zambian 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 ...

immigrants.

Industry

Willowvale is home to numerous manufacturing businesses, notably in food production,

vehicles A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wate ...

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

and electronics. However, the suburb is best known as home of the city's Tobacco Auction Floors, located on Gleneagles Rd, and the world's largest

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

auction. The floors are open to visitors with auctions and trading activity being the highlight of a visit.

Willowgate

Willowvale gave its name to the 1988-89 "Willowgate" scandal, in which government officials were using their positions to purchase foreign automobiles from a Willowvale car company and then reselling them at high profits. The sales were exposed by ''

Chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

'' editors

Geoffrey Nyarota Geoffrey Nyarota (born c. 1951) is a Zimbabwean journalist and human rights activist. Born in colonial Southern Rhodesia, he trained as a teacher before beginning his career with a Zimbabwean state-owned newspaper, '' The Herald''. As editor of t ...

and

Davison Maruziva Davison Maruziva is a Zimbabwean journalist and editor. Along with Geoffrey Nyarota, he broke the 1989 "Willowgate" scandal that resulted in the resignation of five government ministers, but was forced from his job with the state-owned '' Bulawa ...

in a series of investigative reports, and led to a national scandal and commission of inquiry. A provincial governor and five ministers of the government of President

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

resigned, one of whom,

Maurice Nyagumbo Tapfumaneyi Maurice Nyagumbo (12 December 1924 – 20 April 1989) was a Zimbabwean politician, who spent almost two decades in prison as a consequence of his political activities. Life and career Nyagumbo was born in 1924, in Makoni, near Rusap ...

, committed suicide.

References

Suburbs of Harare {{Zimbabwe-geo-stub