Moving to Chitungwiza

Commuting into Harare

Harare's employers, across every sector

This is the honest first entry. Chitungwiza's working population is largely employed in Harare — offices, factories, retail, domestic and construction work — and the city functions as a residential district of the capital rather than as a labour market of its own.

Informal trade and services

Chikwanha, Huruyadzo and Makoni markets; roadside vendors; home workshops

The largest visible economy in Chitungwiza and the one that absorbs most people who cannot commute. Markets here undercut Harare's on produce and secondhand goods, and supply traders in the capital.

Public services

Chitungwiza Central Hospital, Chitungwiza Municipality, schools and clinics

The most reliable formal employment in the city. The central hospital in particular is a substantial employer of nurses, technicians and administrators.

Stone sculpture and the arts

Chitungwiza Arts Centre and its resident sculptors

One of the country's most significant concentrations of Shona stone sculptors works here, carving and selling on site. It is a genuine export trade and the thing Chitungwiza is best known for outside Zimbabwe.

Transport

Kombi operators, mushika-shika drivers, cross-border haulage on the Masvingo road

The commuter fleet is itself a large employer — drivers, conductors, rank marshals and mechanics — and the Harare–Masvingo–Beitbridge corridor runs past the city.

Light manufacturing and construction

Small workshops, brickmaking, building trades

Modest and mostly informal. Chitungwiza's growth is residential, and building it is the closest thing the city has to an industry of its own.

Culture · Off Chitungwiza Road

A working co-operative of Shona stone sculptors, carving serpentine and springstone in the open and selling straight from the yard.

Local tip: Go on a weekday when people are actually working, and talk to the sculptor rather than the front-of-house seller. Prices are a fraction of a Harare gallery's and you are buying from the person who made it.

Landmark · Zengeza

The Olympic-size pool complex built for the 1995 All-Africa Games, and still the best swimming facility outside Harare's private clubs.

Local tip: It is a genuine piece of national sporting infrastructure sitting in a high-density suburb, which tells you something about what Chitungwiza was meant to become. Check opening times locally — they change.

Landmark · Zengeza

Chitungwiza's football ground, and the home of a support culture that is out of all proportion to the city's size.

Local tip: A Sunday league match here is the cheapest and most enjoyable way to understand the town. Go with someone local, take small notes and nothing you mind losing.

Food · Seke and St Mary's

The city's produce and goods markets, where a large share of the household economy actually happens.

Local tip: Cheaper than anything in Harare on vegetables, and the traders here supply the capital's markets. Go early, bring small denominations, and learn 'marii?' before you arrive.

Neighborhood · Central Chitungwiza

One of the three original townships amalgamated into Chitungwiza in 1978, and still the city's most established residential area.

Local tip: Walk it on a Saturday. Zengeza, St Mary's and Seke were three separate places before they became one city, and the seams are still visible if you look.

Neighborhood · North towards Harare

The artery that defines Chitungwiza — kombi ranks, roadside trade and the daily tide of commuters running to and from the capital.

Local tip: Ride it northbound at 6am once, just to understand what you are signing up for. It is the single most informative hour you can spend in this city.