Bulawayo koBulawayo |
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— City — | |||
View of Bulawayo's Central Business District from Pioneer House by Prince Phumulani Nyoni | |||
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Nickname(s): 'City of Kings', 'Skies', 'Bluez' or 'Bulliesberg' | |||
Motto: Si Ye Phambili | |||
Location in the Bulawayo Province | |||
Bulawayo
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Coordinates: | |||
Country | Zimbabwe | ||
Province | Bulawayo | ||
District | City of Bulawayo | ||
Settled | 1840 | ||
Incorporated (town) | 1897 | ||
Incorporated (city) | 1943 | ||
Divisions |
4 Districts,29 Wards,156 Suburbs | ||
Government | |||
• Type | Provincial Municipality | ||
• Mayor | Thaba Moyo | ||
Area | |||
• Water | 129.3 km2 (49.9 sq mi) | ||
• Urban | 650.5 km2 (251.2 sq mi) | ||
• Metro | 899.459 km2 (347.3 sq mi) | ||
Elevation[1] | 1,370 m (4,495 ft) | ||
Population (2010) | |||
• City | 2,000,000 | ||
• Density | 2,222/km2 (5,755/sq mi) | ||
• Urban | 1,500,000 | ||
• Urban density | 2,305/km2 (5,969.9/sq mi) | ||
estimated | |||
Demonym | Muntu | ||
Time zone | SAST (UTC+2) | ||
• Summer (DST) | not observed (UTC+2) | ||
Area code(s) | 9 | ||
Twin cities | |||
• Durban | South Africa | ||
• Aberdeen | Scotland | ||
• Katima Mulilo | Namibia | ||
• Polokwane | South Africa | ||
Website | http://www.citybyo.co.zw http://www.bulawayopublicity.com |
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated metropolitan population in 2007 of 731 003.[2] It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland. The capital of Matabeleland North is now Lupane, as Bulawayo is a stand-alone province.
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Bulawayo is also known as the 'City of Kings', 'Skies', 'Bluez', 'Bulliesberg' or 'KoNtuthu ziyathunqa' – a SiNdebele word for 'a place of smoky fires'. It is a multicultural city with most residents able to speak at least three languages (including English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Kalanga, Sotho, Nambya, Tonga and Venda). The majority of the Bulawayo's population belongs to the Ndebele ethnic and language group, who descend from a 19th century Zulu migration and are a minority in Zimbabwe.
Bulawayo has long been and is still regarded as the industrial and business capital of Zimbabwe and is home to the National Railways of Zimbabwe because of its strategic position near Botswana and South Africa. It is the nearest large city to Hwange National Park, Matopo National Park and Victoria Falls.
The name Bulawayo comes from the SiNdebele word KoBulawayo meaning 'a place of killing.' It is thought that at the time of the formation of the city, there was a civil war and a group of Ndebeles not aligned to Prince Lobengula were fighting him as they felt he was not the heir to the throne, hence he gave his capital the name 'where he (the prince) is being killed'. It is said that when King Lobengula named the place "KoBulawayo" his generals asked "who is being killed mtanenkosi (prince)?" and he replied "Yimi umntwanenkosi engibulawayo", meaning "its me the prince who is being killed". At the time Lobengula was just a prince fighting to ascend his father's (Mzilikazi) throne. It was common at the time for people to refer to Bulawayo as "KoBulawayo UmntwaneNkosi" "a place where they are fighting or rising against the prince". The name Bulawayo is imported from Nguniland which is a place once occupied by the Khumalo people. The place still exists and it is next to Richards Bay.
The city was founded by the Ndebele king, uMzilikazi kaMatshobana around 1840 after the Ndebele people's great trek from Zululand.
Bulawayo was a centre of imperialist intrigue and many colonial powers cast covetous eyes on Bulawayo and the land surrounding it. Britain made skillful use of private initiative in the shape of Cecil Rhodes and the Chartered Company in order to disarm the suspicion of her rivals. Lobengula once described Britain as a chameleon and himself as the fly.[3]
During the 1893 Matabele War the invasion by British South Africa Company troops led the then king, Lobengula to flee from his burning capital and head north, BSAC troops and white settlers occupied the town. On 4 November 1893, Leander Starr Jameson declared Bulawayo a settlement under the rule of the British South Africa Company and Cecil John Rhodes ordered that the new settlement be built on the ruins of Lobengula's royal town, which is where the State House stands today. In 1897, the new town of Bulawayo acquired the status of municipality, Col. Harry White became the first mayor, and in 1943, Bulawayo became a city.
Right at the outbreak of the Second Matabele War, in March 1896, Bulawayo was besieged by Ndebele forces and a laager was established there for defensive purposes. The Ndebele had experienced the brutal effectiveness of the British Maxim guns in the First Matabele War, so they never mounted a significant attack against Bulawayo even though over 10,000 Ndebele warriors could be seen near the town. But rather than wait passively the settlers immediately mounted patrols, called the Bulawayo Field Force, under legendary figures such as Frederick Selous and Frederick Russell Burnham who rode out to rescue any surviving settlers in the countryside and went on attack against the Ndebele. Within the first week of fighting, 20 men of the Bulawayo Field Force were killed and another 50 wounded.
During the siege, conditions inside Bulawayo quickly deteriorated. By day, settlers could go to homes and buildings within the town, but at night they were forced to seek shelter in the much smaller laager. Nearly 1,000 women and children were crowded into the small area and false alarms of attacks were common. The Ndebele made a critical error during the siege in neglecting to cut the telegraph lines connecting Bulawayo to Mafikeng. This gave both the besieged Bulawayo Field Force and the British relief forces, coming from Salisbury and Fort Victoria, now Harare and Masvingo respectively 300 miles to the North, and from Kimberley and Mafeking 600 miles to the South, far more information than they would otherwise have had. Once the relief forces arrived in late May 1896, the siege was broken and an estimated 50,000 Ndebele retreated into their stronghold of the Matobo Hills near Bulawayo. Not until October 1896 would the Ndebele finally lay down their arms.
In recent years, Bulawayo has experienced a sharp fall in living standards coinciding with the severe economic crisis affecting the country. Today it is home to the strongest opposition to the government of Robert Mugabe. The main problems include poor investment and widespread unemployment. Water shortages due to lack of expansion in facilities and supplies have become steadily more acute since 1992. Cholera broke out in 2008.
The city sits on a plain that marks the Highveld of Zimbabwe and is close to the watershed between the Zambezi and Limpopo drainage basins. The land slopes gently downwards to the north and northwest. The southern side is hillier, and the land becomes more broken in the direction of the Matobo Hills to the south.
Due to its relatively high altitude, the city has a subtropical climate despite lying within the tropics. Under the Koppen climate classification, Bulawayo features a humid subtropical climate (Cwa), though it’s a drier version of the climate. The mean annual temperature is 19.16°C,[4] similar to Pretoria at a similar altitude but almost 600 km farther south. As with much of southern and eastern Zimbabwe, Bulawayo is cooled by a prevailing southeasterly airflow most of the year, and experiences three broad seasons: a dry, cool winter season from May to August; a hot dry period in early summer from late August to early November; and a warm wet period in the rest of the summer, early November to April. The hottest month is October, which is usually the height of the dry season. The average maximum temperature ranges from 21°C in July to 30°C in October. During the rainy season, daytime maxima are around 26°C. Nights are always cool, ranging from 8°C in July to 16°C in January.
The city's average annual rainfall is 590mm, which supports a natural vegetation of open woodland, dominated by Combretum and Terminalia trees. Most rain falls in the December to February period, while June to August is usually rainless. Being close to the Kalahari Desert, Bulawayo is vulnerable to droughts and rainfall tends to vary sharply from one year to another. In 1915, 748mm of rain fell in the three months up to February (December 1914 is the wettest month on record) while in the three months ending February 1983, only 84mm fell.
Climate data for Bulawayo | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 36 (97) |
34 (93) |
34 (93) |
33 (91) |
31 (88) |
28 (82) |
28 (82) |
32 (90) |
36 (97) |
36 (97) |
37 (99) |
35 (95) |
37 (99) |
Average high °C (°F) | 27 (81) |
27 (81) |
26 (79) |
26 (79) |
23 (73) |
21 (70) |
21 (70) |
23 (73) |
27 (81) |
29 (84) |
29 (84) |
28 (82) |
25.58 (78.04) |
Average low °C (°F) | 16 (61) |
16 (61) |
15 (59) |
13 (55) |
9 (48) |
7 (45) |
7 (45) |
9 (48) |
12 (54) |
15 (59) |
16 (61) |
16 (61) |
12.58 (54.64) |
Record low °C (°F) | 9 (48) |
8 (46) |
9 (48) |
3 (37) |
1 (34) |
−2 (28) |
0 (32) |
0 (32) |
3 (37) |
7 (45) |
9 (48) |
11 (52) |
−2 (28) |
Rainfall mm (inches) | 142 (5.59) |
109 (4.29) |
84 (3.31) |
18 (0.71) |
10 (0.39) |
3 (0.12) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
5 (0.2) |
20 (0.79) |
81 (3.19) |
122 (4.8) |
594 (23.39) |
Avg. rainy days (≥ .25 mm) | 14 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 69 |
Sunshine hours | 217 | 224 | 248 | 270 | 279 | 300 | 279 | 310 | 300 | 279 | 240 | 248 | 3,194 |
Source: BBC Weather,[5] |
Bulawayo has long been known as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe. It has a large manufacturing presence, and large industries such as Merlin Textiles, Zimbabwe Engineering Company (Zeco), Hubert Davies, Radar Metal Industries, National Blankets, G & D Shoes, Merlin, Tregers Group, Stewarts & Lloyds, Hunyani Holdings, Cold Storage Commission. However some of these companies have either moved operations to Harare or no longer exist altogether which has crippled Bulawayo's economy. The industries are deserted and the infrastructure has since been left to deteriorate, further deterring investors from operating in the city. The reason for the cities de-industrialization has been heralded to be the lack of infrastructure to support the size of the city and it's operations and an unreliable source of water and the collapse of the rail infrastructure which was a core reason of placing industry in Bulawayo to begin with. Many locals argue that it is because of marginalisation they experience against the government due to cultural differences between the Shona in Harare and the Ndebele Proper in Bulawayo because the National railways of Zimbabwe (Headquarters Bulawayo) is a government parastatal and as such should have been thriving had it not been for embezzlement of allocated funds by company executives who are believed to be Shona. The water issue is not new and had brought about the "help a thirsty Matabele" initiative of the 1970s and the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project which would put an end to the water issue in Matabeleland was drafted, however this project was put on hold soon after independence. these allegations have all been labeled hogwash by the relevant authorities, however they have only fueled the secessionist initiative into a general opinion. Before the collapse of Zimbabwe's rail infrastructure, Bulawayo was an important transport hub, providing rail links between Botswana, South Africa and Zambia and promoting the city's development as a major industrial centre. The city still contains most of what remains of Zimbabwe's heavy industry and food processing capability including a Thermal Power Station which resumed operations in February 2011 after a capitalisation deal with the Government of Botswana where Bulawayo would supply 45 Megawatts in three years. Like many parts of the country, Bulawayo has for the past ten years seen a huge drop in service delivery and an increase in unemployment due to the number of resignations of people seeking better prospects across the border. Many people resorted to farming, mining and the black market for sustainance, while others depended on the little foreign currency that would be sent by family in other countries. However, with the introduction of the multi-currency system in 2009, a new approach is seen by investors in the city who admire the already available infrastructure and the huge workforce and Bulawayo as great prospects for the future and is set to once again contribute greatly to the economy of Zimbabwe. The city is served by Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport which has been expanded a number of times to cope with the influx of visitors into he region. The Edgars clothing stores are headquartered in Bulawayo. The Rovos rail run luxury train, Pride of Africa makes a stop in Bulawayo for pick up and dropping off passengers. Bulawayo is situated along the Trans-African Highway network important trade route of Cairo – Cape Town Highway. Most of the city's industries are privately owned, especially in the transport sector.
Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu 1981–1983
Ald.Enos Mdlongwa 1983–1985
Ald.Nicholas Joel Mabodoko 1985–1988
Ald. Israel Gadhlula
Clr. Joshua Teke Malinga
Ald. Siwela
Japhet Ndabeni Ncube
Thaba Moyo
Bulawayo is home to the Queens Sports Club and Bulawayo Athletic Club, two of the three grounds in Zimbabwe where test match cricket has been played. It is also home to Hartsfield Rugby grounds where many international Test matches have been played. Hartsfield was developed by Reg Hart, after whom the grounds were named, and on which field many of southern Africa's greatest rugby players have competed. It is home to two large football teams, Highlanders[6] and Zimbabwe Saints. Other football teams include Railstars and Bantu Rovers.
In Bulawayo, there are 128 primary and 48 secondary schools.[9]
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