• Independence celebrations and Children’s Party will be held at Mt Darwin center.
• The government continues to push for decentralized national celebrations.

The Zimbabwean government has announced that the main ceremony for the 43rd Independence Day celebrations is set to be held in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central Province, and also continue to decentralize the festivities.

The minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa disclosed after a post-Cabinet meeting in Harare that the Children’s Party will be held at the Mt Darwin Centre.

“The venue of the 2023 Children’s Party and Independence Day celebrations on April 17 and 18 will be Mt Darwin Centre, in Mashonaland Central”, she said.

Last year’s Independence celebrations were held at Bulawayo the Barbourfields Stadium, which made it the first time the ceremony was being held outside Harare, as it was in line with the government’s push to decentralize national celebrations.

Minister Mutsvangwa said “the decentralization of this august national event is in line with the Second Republic’s devolution agenda, and the ethos of ‘Leaving No One and No Place Behind’’. 

According to Mutsvangwa Mt Darwin is “important and entrenched in the archives of the country’s liberation history”, as it holds a lot of significance in the attainment of independence.

Typically, the main ceremony of the country’s independence celebrations was held in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, due to the suspension of the festivities during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the government resolved to decentralize the national event.

However, in 2021, the annual celebrations were held virtually due to the covid-19 restrictions.

The Minister also revealed that the 63rd Zimbabwe International Trade Fair would take place in Bulawayo between April 25 to 29, 2023, themed “Transformative Innovation, Global Competitiveness”, with a total of 363 exhibitors, 45 new exhibitors, and nine foreign nations booked for the exhibition.