The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced open house and dedication dates for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple, which will be the first dedicated house of the Lord in that south African nation and the ninth for the continent.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Harare Zimbabwe Temple on Sunday, March 1, 2026, with the single dedicatory session to be broadcast to all congregations within the temple district.
The Harare temple will be opened to the public six weeks earlier, beginning with a media day scheduled for Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, followed by tours for invited guests on Jan. 20 and 21. The public open house starts Thursday, Jan. 22, and continues through Saturday, Feb. 7, excluding Sundays.
The dedication and open house dates were first announced Monday, Aug. 18, 2025, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The temple – an approximately 17,250-square-foot edifice standing on a 6.7-acre site at 65 Enterprise Road Highlands in Harare — brings the blessings of the house of the Lord much closer to the more than 46,000 Latter-day Saints comprising over 100 congregations that reside in Zimbabwe. Members currently travel some 14 hours by car to the Johannesburg South Africa Temple, which has been their assigned temple since 1985.
Temple announcement and groundbreaking
A temple for Harare was announced by the late President Thomas S. Monson, then President of the Church, during April 2016 general conference. Ground was broken for the temple on Dec. 12, 2020, during a small, invitation-only event that adhered to local government social-distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presiding over the groundbreaking was Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy and Zimbabwe native who at the time served as first counselor in the Africa South Area presidency. Called as the country’s first stake president with the 1999 organization of the Harare Zimbabwe Stake, Elder Dube now serves as a member of the Church’s Presidency of the Seventy.
“The Harare Zimbabwe Temple will be a beautiful and stunning building,” said Elder Dube at the groundbreaking. “Like every temple, it will stand not only as a manifestation of the faith of Latter-day Saints who live close by in this country and the neighboring countries of Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique but also a manifestation of the faith of Saints all around the world.”
Leaders and invited guests attending the groundbreaking services included Emmerson Mnangagwa, president of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Mnangagwa spoke at the groundbreaking service. “I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Church for extending an invitation to me,” he said. “It is most opportune that this event comes in this month of December, where the majority of Christians from all walks of life and denominations commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.”
The Church’s history in Zimbabwe
The Church has a rich history in the landlocked south African country known for its dramatic landscapes and extensive wildlife.
As early as 1925, the Church had members in Southern Rhodesia — the name of the nation of Zimbabwe prior to 1980. Peter and Elizabeth DuPlooy, who lived 62 miles outside of what is now the city of Harare, were baptized on March 10, 1925, while on a visit to South Africa.
Five years later, the Church sent missionaries to the new Rhodesia District, and they worked in the area for five years due to the city’s distance from mission headquarters.
Members continued contact through letters written to the South African Mission headquarters that ran news in the mission publication, The Southern Cumorah Cross.
In 1950, missionaries returned to Rhodesia. On Feb. 1, 1951, the first convert, Hugh Hodgkiss, was baptized; the Salisbury (now called Harare) Branch was organized in September 1951.
Meetinghouses were built and dedicated in Rhodesia in the late 1960s. Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Salisbury Branch meetinghouse on Sept. 17, 1967. Elder Marion G. Romney of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Bulawayo Branch meetinghouse on Sept. 3, 1968.
On April 18, 1980, Britain recognized Rhodesia’s independence, and the country’s name was officially changed to Zimbabwe. On July 1, 1987, the Zimbabwe Harare Mission was organized, created in a division of the South Africa Johannesburg Mission. In 1988, selections from the Book of Mormon were translated in Shona.
Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Zimbabwe for the preaching of the gospel in 1991. The late President Gordon B. Hinckley, then the Church President on a five-country tour of Africa, visited Zimbabwe on Feb. 18, 1998, and spoke to about 1,500 Latter-day Saints.
Current Church President Russell M. Nelson, in his inaugural world ministry in April 2018, visited Harare and conducted a devotional meeting with Latter-day Saints there. Joined by then-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles member who is now the body’s acting president, President Nelson also visited a prospective temple site during his stop.
“You deserve a temple here in Harare because that’s where we get the highest of all the blessings that God can give to His faithful children,” President Nelson said. “I want to be here to see that happen.”
