Chipinge District is a district in Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe. The administrative headquarters is

Chipinge Chipinge is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Chipinge District, in Manicaland Province, in southeastern Zimbabwe, close to the border with Mozambique. Location The town lies approximately , by road, south of Mutare, the nearest large city. This ...

Geography

Chipinge District is the southernmost district in Manicaland province. It is bounded on the north by Chimanimani District, on the west by Masvingo Province, and on the east by Mozambique. The Save River forms the western boundary of the District, and drains the western and southern portions of district. The northeastern portion of the district is drained by the Buzi River and its headwater tributaries. The southern end of the Eastern Highlands reach into the northern portion of the district.

Mount Selinda Mount Selinda, at an altitude of 1,100 metres, is a village and mission station in the province of Manicaland in the eastern mountains of Zimbabwe. Located close to the Mozambique border, it lies in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Mount Sel ...

(1,230 meters) lies near the Mozambican border.

Townships and villages

* Craigmore * Chibuwe *

Chisumbanje Chisumbanje is an area in the Province of Manicaland, Zimbabwe. It is situated in Chipinge District, one of the seven districts in Manicaland Province. It is located in the Dowoyo communal land on the eastern bank of the Save River, about south of ...

* Checheche * Junction Gate * Mkasa * Rupisi

People

The rural portion of Chipinge District has a population of 324,133. The rural population is 298,841, and the urban population, which consists of Chipinge town, is 25,292 (2012 census). Ndau people, a sub group of the Shona people, inhabit the north and central portions of the district.

Tswa people Tswa (''Xitswa'') is a South-Eastern Bantu language in Southern Mozambique. Its closest relatives are Ronga and Tsonga, the three forming the Tswa–Ronga family of languages. Tswa is mainly spoken in the rural areas west of Inhambane. Its larg ...

live in the south.

Transport

The A10 road runs through the district, running southwards from Chimanimani District, then jogging west to the Save River. Here it meets the A16 road, which runs south along the Save from

Birchenough Bridge Birchenough Bridge is the name for both a bridge across the Save River (pronounced Sa've) and a village next to the bridge. Birchenough Bridge is called after Sir Henry Birchenough. Birchenough Bridge is located 62 km from Chipinge in the ...

. From the A16 junction the A10 follows the Save southwards, crossing westwards over the Save River at Rupangwana via the

Jack Quinton Bridge Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, i ...

. Where the A10 turns west, a road branches south to

, and continues southeast to cross the Mozambican border between

and

Espungabera Espungabera is a township in the Mossurize District of Manica Province in central Mozambique. It is situated from a border post with Zimbabwe, which is open daily from 8:00 to 17:00 or 18:00. Espungabera has 3 fuel stations but supplies can run out ...

in Mozambique.

Chipinge Airport Chipinge Airport is an airport serving Chipinge, Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. See also *Transport in Zimbabwe *List of airports in Zimbabwe This is a list of airports in Zimbabwe, sorted by location. Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of ...

is near the town of Chipinge.

Administration

The District has 31 rural administrative wards, and eight urban wards in Chipinge town. The district is divided into five Assembly parliamentary constituencies:

Chipinge Central Chipinge Central is a constituency in Zimbabwe. As of 2008, it elects one representative to the House of Assembly. In the parliamentary election the seat was won by the ZANU-PF candidate Chitima Alice Mwaemura defeating the MDC candidate from the ...

, Chipinge East,

Chipinge South Chipinge South is a constituency in southeastern Zimbabwe in the province of Manicaland near the Mozambique border. It is named after Chipinge town. Chipinge is one of the constituencies, where the ZANU–PF The Zimbabwe African National Un ...

, Chipinge West, and Musikavanhu. The district is a single

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

constituency.

Ecology

Miombo woodland The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

is the predominant vegetation in the northern, central, and northeastern portions of the district.

Mopane woodland ''Colophospermum mopane'', commonly called mopane, mopani, balsam tree, butterfly tree, or turpentine tree, is a tree in the legume family (Fabaceae), that grows in hot, dry, low-lying areas, in elevation, in the far northern parts of southern A ...

occurs in the Save River lowlands in the west and south of the district. Pockets of mid-elevation evergreen forest occur on a few eastward-facing mountain slopes in the district, where the mountains create orographic precipitation from winds coming from the Indian Ocean.

Protected areas

Chipinge Safari Area (261 km²) is located in the highlands west of Chipinge, overlooking the Save River Valley. It includes both miombo and mopane woodland.Gobiye Felix (2015). "Proposal for Additional Game Species in Chipinge Safari Area". Zimbabwe Parks and Management Authority, January 2015. Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve protects an enclave of evergreen forest on the slopes of Mount Selinda.

References

{{Authority control Districts of Manicaland Province