By Correspondent
At the intersection of Main Street and Robert Mugabe Way in Gweru is a 60 feet tall green Tower Clock which has come to represent Gweru.
The Gweru Boogie Tower Click was constructed in 1937 to honour the legacy of Major William James Boogie.
The Major, was once the MP for the Midlands area in the Rhodesian Parliament.
Boogie is best remembered for having put forward the original Bill for the establishment of the Hwange Game Reserve.
The use of the Clock Tower as a target by cadet pilots from the Moffat School of Bombing and Gunnery was the matchstick that led to the bonfire:
“Jeannie versus the Army Round Two”.
The army academy was located at the site of the present day Bata Shoe Company.
However, today the clock in the tower is no longer functioning.
The reason were complaints by residents at the nearby Midlands Hotel, formerly known as Horseshoe Hotel.
They complained that the clock, which loudly rung eleven times at 2300hrs and twelve times at midnight, was disturbing their peace.
Gweru Council then silenced the clock.
After independence authorities felt that the Tower Clock and its prescription about Boogie were offensive to the newly liberated country.
They were suggestions that it be teared down while others felt it should be retained for historical purposes.
Ultimately it was agreed that the Tower be kept but the inscription be changed.
Words relating to the colonial past were then replaced.
At one time traffic accidents because numerous at the place again leading to calls for the removal of the tower.
They were also reports that rituals were being performed at the place.
However, the tower has withstood the test of time and today remains, an emblematic representation of the Midlands town.
