HIGHLANDS' HISTORY

Ward 8 largely corresponds to the original Nursery Farm - one of the 13  farms comprising early Salisbury. The text below from Jonathan Waters provides some background into the origins of our ward's boundaries.

"The core of modern day Highlands was Welmoed Farm, an estate of roughly 2,000 acres owned by Gerhardt van der Byl - the crest of Welmoed can still be seen today on many of the public buildings in the district. This farm was bordered to the west  by Orange Grove, a fruit bearing orchard  on the west of Pocket's Hill owned originally by Robert McIlwaine (of Lake Chivero fame) , and to the north by Rietfontein, the original farm of Courtney Selous. Welmoed was sold to the Salisbury Real Estate Company in 1927 when van der Byl retired back to the Cape. The property vehicle was owned largely by Scotsmen, who decided on the name Highlands, partly because it was on one of the highest pieces of ground in Harare, but also because they wanted a Scottish flavour about the project... The Highlands Town Board was formed in 1942, and a portion of Rietfontein (now Chisipite) opted to amalgamate in 1953 after water was secured from what was Lake McIlwaine." 

Today there are approximately 7,000 households in the ward. We are currently represented in Council by the Hon. Keith Charumbira and we fall into the Harare East Consituency represented by the Hon Tendai Biti. Both of our representatives contact details can be found on the contact sheet on the Resources page.