Moving to Bulawayo

Rail and logistics

National Railways of Zimbabwe, freight forwarders, cross-border haulage

Bulawayo is the headquarters of the national railway and the junction of the lines to South Africa, Botswana and Victoria Falls. The network is a shadow of what it was, but the logistics and haulage trade around the Beitbridge and Plumtree corridors is real employment.

Remaining manufacturing and agro-processing

Food, beverage, textile and engineering firms in Belmont, Kelvin and Thorngrove

The city's industrial areas are far below capacity and that is the central economic fact about Bulawayo. What survives is largely food, beverage and light engineering serving the domestic market.

Mining and mining services

Gold operations across Matabeleland, coal at Hwange, service and engineering firms

Bulawayo is the supply and engineering town for Matabeleland's gold belt and for Hwange's coal, which is the most reliable professional employment in the city.

Tourism gateway

Safari operators, tour companies, hospitality

Matobo Hills and Khami Ruins are both UNESCO World Heritage sites within an hour, and Hwange and Victoria Falls are reachable by road and by the overnight train. Bulawayo is the base for the country's western circuit.

Education and health

National University of Science and Technology, Mpilo, United Bulawayo Hospitals, Ingutsheni

NUST and three central hospitals make the public sector a much larger share of skilled employment here than in Harare, and one of the more stable parts of the local labour market.

Cross-border trade and remittances

Informal traders, money transfer agents, retail

The 2022 census recorded 17,840 South Africa-born residents in Bulawayo province, and the flow runs both ways. A large share of household income in this city arrives from across the border rather than from a local payslip.

Nature · About 35 km south

A UNESCO World Heritage landscape of balancing granite whalebacks, San rock paintings, black eagles and one of Africa's densest rhino populations.

Local tip: Go with a guide who will walk you to the paintings rather than driving you to the viewpoint. Do the rhino tracking on foot if you can — it is the single best day out available from any Zimbabwean city.

Landmark · About 22 km west

The dry-stone terraced capital of the Torwa state, successor to Great Zimbabwe, and the country's second UNESCO World Heritage site.

Local tip: Almost empty on a weekday. Go in the late afternoon when the light rakes across the decorated stonework, and take a hat — there is no shade on the terraces.

Culture · Centenary Park

One of the largest museum collections in southern Africa, with a mounted elephant that has been the city's landmark exhibit for generations.

Local tip: Give it two hours rather than the half you were planning. The geology and mammal halls are genuinely first-rate and it is a fraction of the price of anything comparable in the region.

Culture · Beside the main station

Steam locomotives, a Rhodesia Railways directors' saloon and rolling stock going quietly rusty in a yard next to the working line.

Local tip: Nobody goes, which is why it is worth it. Ask the caretaker to open the carriages — the stories about the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls run are the real exhibit.

Nature · Hillside

Two small colonial-era dams and their surrounding bush, run as a conservancy inside the suburbs — walking trails, birds and a tea garden.

Local tip: The nearest thing Bulawayo has to a public park with life in it. Go early on a Saturday; it is where the city walks its dogs and where you will meet people.

Landmark · City centre

Bulawayo's streets were laid out wide enough for a wagon and a full span of oxen to turn around, and the grid has never been narrowed.

Local tip: Walk Fife Street and Main Street on a Sunday morning when they are empty and the scale makes sense. The art deco and colonial-era facades along them are the best-preserved streetscape in Zimbabwe.