Silobela is an agricultural Resettlement in

Kwekwe District Kwekwe, originally known as Que Que, is a district in Zimbabwe. 197,062 people live in Kwekwe rural and 119,863 live in Kwekwe town (2022 census). Location It is found in the Midlands Province, in the central Zimbabwe. Kwekwe, with an estimated ...

in the

Midlands Province Midlands is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of and a population of 1,811,905 (2022). It is home to various peoples. Located at a central point in the country, it contains speakers of Shona, Ndebele, Tswana, Sotho and Chewa, as well as ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. It is located about west of

Kwekwe Kwekwe ( ), formerly known as Que Que, is a city in the Midlands province in central Zimbabwe. The city has a population of 119,863 within the city limits, as of the 2022 census, making it the 7th-largest city in Zimbabwe and the second-mo ...

town, north-west of

Gweru Gweru, originally known as Gwelo, is a city in central Zimbabwe. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high banks, in 1894 it became the site of a m ...

town, and bordering Nkayi on the west.

Background

Most of the inhabitants of Silobela were relocated from the area between Gweru and

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

(called Hogo) in the 1940s to allow for white commercial farmers to take up that land. Most of the population is Ndebele and they speak the isiNdebele language.

Centers

A major centre in Silobela is the Loreto Mission which incorporates the Loreto High School, a Roman Catholic boarding school, the Loreto Hospital, which is the largest medical centre in the region, and the Police Station with detention cells. Also in the vicinity is an irrigation co-operative and a business centre with a supermarket, beer outlets and

greengrocer A greengrocer is a person who owns or operates a shop selling primarily produce, fruit and vegetables. The term may also be used to refer to a shop selling primarily produce. It is used predominantly in the United Kingdom and Australia. In the ...

's. The

Gweru River Gweru River (known as Gwelo River until 1982) is a river in Midlands (Zimbabwe), Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. Background The name Gweru is a further distortion of the name Gwelo which was a distortion of the name Ikwelo meaning a very steep pl ...

passes just to the east of Loreto.

Crossroads District Service Center

Crossroads Growth Point is the commercial hub of Silobela. It is about 80 km Southwest of

. From this center one roads leads to

, the other to Nkayi and the other to the northern villages of Silobela, and still the main one to

, hence

Crossroads Crossroads is a junction where four roads meet. Crossroads, crossroad, cross road(s) or similar may also refer to: Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a ...

Silobela Old People's Home

The Silobela Old people’s Home was built on a 20 hectare farm, which was donated by the Government in 1979.

Villages

The Resettlement is divided into smaller undocumented areas each with several primary schools and fewer secondary schools. A non-exhaustive list of these smaller areas includes * Grid 13, koMjika * Lahleka, * Nyakwathi, * Donsa, * Rungu * Ndlamatuli * Simana, * Ntobe, * Mtshogwe, * Nzwananzi, * Malisa, chief * BB, * Common range, * Gobo, * Ruya, * Sinangeni, * Sikhumbatshokotshe, * Mahlathini, * Bharanke * Kanye, * Abifoil, * Green, * Jena Mines * Zibomvu' * Mtshikitsha' * Mbombela * KoParker

Economy

Silobela is known for its rich

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

deposits. There have been reports of people finding exposed gold deposits in their back yards. Gold has been mined in the past by the now inoperative Turtle Mine, and by Empress Mine and Leopard Mine, now jointly known as Jena Mines. Currently, the Jena Mines, together with thousands of illegal gold panners, are actively extracting gold in the area. There is also Exchange Irrigation Scheme which is in Silobela Constituency and is administered by Silobela Offices yet geographically it is in Zhombe Communal Land.

Jena Mine

Jena Mine is owned by the Kuvimba Mining house (pvt) ltd. Jena Mine has seen both odd and even economic times but the ZMDC keeps resuscitating it. Of late a new power line from the thermal Munyati Power Station has enhanced gold production at Jena Mine. but local Solobela has not seen much improvements economically even though Jena Mine produces about 40 kg of gold each month. However, Jena Mine is the biggest gold producer in the

employing over 600 people.Rumbidzai Zinyuke, 28 January 201
BH24 » ZMDC seeks US$15 million to resuscitate Jena Gold Mines Jena Mine is the biggest gold producer in the province and employs 632 people at full capacity.
Bulawayo24, Business, Retrieved 12 February 2016

References

{{Kwekwe District Populated places in Midlands Province Kwekwe District