Bulawayo Morning Mirror Edition 1151 - 22/6/2026

MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR

Yesterday I visited a variety of sites south of @CityofBulawayo in the Umzingwane dam catchment area and I am horrified by the unchecked and rampant destruction of river systems and entire mountains in that area.

It is clear to me that despite Government stating that river bed and other environmental destruction should stop it is continuing, indeed is escalating.
As the photographs I took yesterday show entire mountains are being destroyed, tributaries blocked with total impunity. The attached extract from Google earth indicates where these photos have been taken.

Perhaps what was even more distressing are all the little children I saw clearly not in school and impoverished. Despite the vast amount of money being extracted from these mountains and rivers nothing is being done by these miners to uplift the local communities. There are no schools or clinics being built. All that is happening is the destruction of roads, rivers, grazing areas and the local habitat.

In addition I observed many young men who are clearly drinking heavily and frequenting shebeens which have sprung up in the vicinity of the mining.
So it is clear that the moral fabric of these societies is being destroyed along with the utter destruction of the environment.

As I have also stated this mining is wreaking havoc on our ability to capture rain water in our dams. With El Nino predicted next year I am deeply worried about our medium to long term water supply situation if this doesn't stop now.

These miners are milking our Nation. With the gold price where it is they are generating massive profits but none of that wealth is being invested in local communities.
It is equally clear that once particular areas have been mined out they are just left without any effort being made to rehabilitate the areas mined so that they can be used by local communities in future.

This is an absolute disgrace and we need urgent intervention by Government, the police and EMA.

The Good Old Days Round 2.

My Editorial on Old Bulawayo memories elicited many responses, and many more glorious memories were submitted.

From Wendy Jennings -
"The Novelty shop one down from the corner of Abercorn and 6th Ave and next to Bancroft and Neil was Carnival Products owned by Mrs Slater".

From Ross Cooper -
'I still wear my van Heusen long sleeved shirts that I bought late 1990s-2001, plus further back, Black Rose shirts.'

From Eric Fry -
'I was fascinated by your editorial in this issue, I am 4th generation Bulawayan, and spent most of my life there. I fondly remember much of the content here. Some I don't remember, I was either too young, being shuffled around the Federation, or finishing my junior school years in Zambia.
You talked about the old pharmacies in Byo, and Bowden's in particular. That prompted me to share the history of the original Bowden's building on Abercorn street. It was the original Methodist church in Bulawayo. After Bowden's moved to their Fife St. premises, the building was removed and restored as the chapel at the Boys Brigade camp site, Stedfast Park, in the Matopos. My wife and I were married in the chapel on 2nd May 1981.
On our 45th anniversary this year I wrote a piece on our wedding and the restoration of the chapel for Last Of The Rhodesians on Facebook.
I have reproduced that article below for your interest, there may be some names in there that you remember.
My wife and I are now happily retired and living near our daughter in Blantyre, Malawi.

The chapel at Stedfast Park was the original Methodist church In Bulawayo, built on or near the site later occupied by The Chronicle. Later it was moved to the far end of Abercorn Street, and the granite frontage was added at that stage. A bell was cast by the foundry at F. Issels and sons. In 1908 Cecil Rhodes laid the corner stone for a much larger church at the corner of Main Street and 11th Ave.
When construction of the new site was completed, the old church became Bowden's Pharmacy.

Some Bulawayans of my vintage may remember the pharmacist, Mrs. Cowan, who kept a jar of sweets on the counter for kids who were allowed to choose one each.
I can't remember the actual year, 1971 or early '72, Bowden's moved to larger premises and the church was marked for demolition to make war for a larger, more modern building.
1st Bulawayo Company Boys Brigade, based in Main Street Methodist Church, were having none of that!

I was a young teenager in 1st Byo Co at the time when we launched a project to restore the church at Stedfast Park. Our officers, Capt. Tony Smith, Dennis Walker (A member of Parliament, later to become the Minister of Internal Affairs), Roy Fleet, John Bowman, and my Dad, managed the project, while we, the lads, did most of the grunt work.
Fundraising and involving the Bulawayo community soon got us to the point where we could start on the actual removal.

We carefully removed the corrugated iron sheets so as not to damage them, followed by the roofing and wall timbers, and then the stonework. The iron sheets (made in England) and timbers were the originals from the building's first construction. Everything was moved to the new site by Conolly's Engineering.

The original arched leaded window frames and bell had long since disappeared, but Dennis Walker asked the Bulawayo Natural History Museum if they had them in storage. They didn't but eventually tracked them down to the museum in Umtali of all places!! C. H. Naake in Byo restored the windows for us, and Issels recast the bell which was cracked.
When everything was in place the rebuilding started. There was a deadline for completion of the project because Boys Brigade were hosting an international camp at Stedfast in 1973, approximately a year later and there was a lot of development work to be done in in the campsite before then.

The site for the chapel was where the storeroom stood, so that was dismantled, the concrete slab extended and Conolly's started the construction.
Over the next months, BB boys were encouraged to take an active part in the construction development work. The officers' thinking was that we were the future of BB and could take some pride in what we were accomplished. As the son of an officer, I wasn't given a choice. Obviously our involvement was restricted to weekends and holidays, but the thinking worked for me and was a significant factor in my choice for the chapel a wedding venue.'

What a glorious story!!