Willowvale is 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 ...

in the South West of

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. The area was a popular suburb for working class

Southern European Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

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

Malawian Demographic features of the population of Malawi include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Region distribution Northern regio ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

an and

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immigrants.

Industry

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

vehicles A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velomobiles), animal-powered tr ...

textiles Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

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 (, 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 local events ...

'' editors Geoffrey Nyarota and Davison Maruziva 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 th ...

resigned, one of whom, Maurice Nyagumbo, committed suicide.

References

Suburbs of Harare {{Zimbabwe-geo-stub