After five years of construction, the public is now invited to tour the Harare Zimbabwe Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The sacred building open house will be held from January 22nd to February 7th, excluding Sundays. A media day will also be held on January 19, and invited guests will tour the temple on January 20-21.
Two General Authority Seventies will lead the Media Day tour. Elder Vayangina (Vai) Sikahema, second counselor in the Africa South Area Presidency, and Elder Erich W. Kopischke, deputy executive director of the Temple Department.
Information about the open house, including interior and exterior photos, was published in a Jan. 19 news release from the church’s Africa Newsroom in conjunction with Media Day.
After an open house, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Harare Temple on March 1. The single dedication ceremony, which will be held at 10 a.m. local time, will be rebroadcast at 2 p.m.
Once dedicated, the Harare Temple will be the first House of the Lord in Zimbabwe and the 214th operating temple in the world.
The temple is located at 65 Enterprise Road, Harare, Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. Latter-day Saints in the city are currently assigned to the Johannesburg South Africa Temple, about a 14-hour drive away.
Design and function
The approximately 17,250-square-foot one-story Harare temple is clad in Kolobrik’s golden wheat travertine bricks. The temple’s exterior incorporates Zimbabwean architecture and indigenous culture, including a simple triangular pattern design motif. The geometric style of the art glass includes floral motifs of the national flower, the frame lily.
Inside the building, a sculptural carpet design in neutral tones with both geometric elements and floral motifs complements the art glass. The floral pattern continues on the entrance rug, which includes designs of flame lilies native to Harare, aloe berry, Yoruba bologna, African lettuce, terracotta gazania, aspiria mossin vicensis, and gezel sugar bush.
Materials used in this master home include porcelain tiles sourced from Turkey, Sultan Beige stone baseboards and countertops. A mixed bronze and brass finish is used on the doors and hardware, while a French gold finish is applied to the ceiling room and ceiling space.
The color palette throughout the temple reflects the local flora and fauna and the landscape of the area. These are also reflected in several works of art, with many of the approximately 45 paintings focusing on the Savior. The 6.7-acre grounds are decorated with locally grown plants, including feather dusters and jacaranda trees.
About Harare Temple
On April 3, 2016, then-President of the Church Thomas S. Monson announced the establishment of the House of the Lord in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The Harare temple is the only temple announced by President Monson that has not yet been dedicated. This situation has been going on since January 18, when the Alabang Philippines Temple was dedicated yesterday. President Monzon announced it in April 2017.
On December 12, 2020, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Harare Temple was held in the presence of the President of Zimbabwe. The event was by invitation only to adhere to local government social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elder Edward Dubé, a General Authority Seventy and then first counselor in the Africa South Area Presidency, presided over the ceremony and dedicated the construction site. Twenty-six years after becoming Zimbabwe’s first stake president, Elder Dube currently serves in the Presidency of the Seventy.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, he said the temple “represents not only the faith of Latter-day Saints in this country and neighboring countries of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, but also the faith of Saints around the world.”
zimbabwe church
The Harare temple is the first in Zimbabwe, but will join eight dedicated temples on the African continent. These are the Johannesburg South Africa Temple (dedicated in 1985), the Accra Temple in Ghana (2004), the Aba Temple in Nigeria (2005), and the Kinshasa Temple in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019). ), Durban Temple in South Africa (2020), Praia Temple in Cape Verde (2022), Nairobi Temple in Kenya (2025), and Abidjan Temple in Ivory Coast (2025).
By 1925, Latter-day Saints were living in Southern Rhodesia (known as Zimbabwe before 1980).
The country’s first mission, the Zimbabwe Harare Mission, covered Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. It was organized in 1987 as a division of the South African Johannesburg Mission.
The Harare Zimbabwe Stake, the first of its kind in the country, was created on December 12, 1999. At the time, the number of Latter-day Saints in the country exceeded 8,500. Since then, church membership in Zimbabwe has tripled between 2000 and 2016, reaching more than 27,000 people.
As of September 2025, there were approximately 49,600 Latter-day Saints living in 116 congregations in Zimbabwe.
harare zimbabwe temple
Address: 65 Enterprise Road, Harare, Zimbabwe
Announcement: April 3, 2016, President Thomas S. Monson
Groundbreaking ceremony: December 12, 2020, presided over by Elder Edward Dube, General Authority Seventy
Open to the public: January 22 to February 7, 2026, except Sundays
Dedication date: March 1, 2026 Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Site area: 6.7 acres
Building size: 17,250 square feet
Building height: 104 feet (including spire)
