Kwekwe Company (ZISCO), the country's largest steelworks. It also hosts the Zimbabwe Iron and Smelting Company (ZIMASCO), the largest ferrochrome producer, and one of the biggest power generating plants, ZESA-Munyati, in Munyati, a suburb of Kwekwe. Kwekwe is Zimbabwe's richest city in terms of minerals. Kwekwe town was founded in 1898 as a gold mining town, and hosts Zimbabwe's National Mining Museum. The town remains an industrial centre of the country. The name stems from the Zulu word "isikwekwe", which means "scurvy", "mange" or "scab". Popular belief states that Kwekwe is named after the croaking noise made by the nearby river's
Kwekwe Shungu High School is located about 16 km from Kwekwe. It is a Catholic run school. The middle-class suburbs close to the city centre have Kwekwe High School and Goldridge College, plus the primary schools including Goldridge Primary School, Fitchlea Primary School, Kwekwe Junior High School and Globe & Phoenix Primary School, Maryward Primary School and Sally Mugabe Primary School. There is almost one primary school for about four sections of the high density areas Kwekwe Polytechnic is the only tertiary education institution in Kwekwe. Sable Chemicals and ZISCO Steel run apprenticeship programs with the polytechnic and with other universities