Tizirai Gwata

Tizirai Annas Gwata (born March 1943) is a medical doctor and politician who served as the first black mayor of Harare, from 1981 to 1984. He also served as a Harare city councillor for Ward 31. Gwata also lectured as the first full time black lecturer of medicine at the University of Zimbabwe. He retired from political life at the end of his term as mayor in 1985, choosing to focus full time on his medical practice and farming.

Early life and education Gwata was born in March 1943. Sources give his birth place as the Buhera/Chivhu area, in eastern Southern Rhodesia, He attended Goromonzi High School from 1958 to 1963.

Gwata was one of a group of only six blacks to be accepted into the University of Rhodesia's medical school, comprising the first black medical students in the university's history. He wrote his final exams for his undergraduate degree in medicine in a refugee camp in Zambia; taking the exam was enabled by white lecturers who snuck out the final exam papers for the black students to take the finals. In 1967, he began studying for his masters at Makerere University in Uganda on a World Health Organization scholarship. he defeated two other candidates with a margin of over 1,000 votes. In a city council vote held on 3 April 1981, he was unanimously elected mayor. He was sworn in on 7 April, becoming Salisbury's first black mayor. At his mayoral inauguration, a televised event attended by deputy prime minister Simon Muzenda, seven cabinet ministers, and several government officials, Gwata gave a speech in which he outlined a ten-point plan for his term as mayor. The city was officially renamed in 1982, after working with the national government to resolve the issue of who would pay for associated costs, like changes in signage.

As mayor, Gwata had to contend with an exodus of white municipal employees, which was particularly impactful where vacancies for skilled technical and administrative posts could not be immediately filled. In response, Gwata made a statement affirming that municipal employees in Harare are selected without racial or political considerations. As mayor, Gwata addressed Harare's inconsistent water supply with the construction of a pipeline from Lake Chivero that more than doubled the size of the city's Morton Jaffray Water Works reservoir. During his term, the city's sewage system was also modernized, with the construction of two new large treatment facilities that transformed the city's waste into clean water. He continued to serve on the city council representing Ward 31 as late as the 1990s. As city councillor, Gwata chaired the health, housing, and community service committee.

Personal life Gwata had five children with his wife Rosemary. He is Catholic.