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Date: 1897 Type: Homestead Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 20°06'26.76" S 28°35'00.60" E Alt: 1338m

This site was originally the kraal of Lobengula, King of the Ndebele people. He fought a major battle against his rivals here; Bulawayo means “place of slaughter.” The British South Africa Company (BSAC) formed by Cecil John Rhodes defeated the Ndebele during the First Matabele War in 1893. Four years later, Rhodes had this house built as his personal residence in 1897. The garden contained a large tree under which he and Lobengula held their negotiations. The building, called Government House, was used by the BSAC during their administration of Southern and Northern Rhodesia. It later became British government property. In 1964, the British PM Harold Wilson met here with Joshua Nkomo of the then-banned Zimbabwe African People's Union to discuss Southern Rhodesia’s independence under Black rule. When Ian Smith, the PM of Southern Rhodesia, unilaterally declared Rhodesia an independent country under predominantly White minority rule, it became one of the official residences of the Prime Minister of Rhodesia. Following the establishment of Zimbabwe in 1980, the then Prime Minister (later President) Robert Mugabe instructed that it be renamed State House and it became the official presidential residence in Bulawayo. By 2011 it was in a state of disrepair due to rarely being used. In 2018, the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that the building would be restored. Sources: Wikipedia and Bulawayo24. Submitted by Lila Komnick.