Engineering Consultants, Merz & McLellan, were employed for the design and supervision of the construction of the power station.

Construction of Stage 1 commenced in 1973, but was suspended in 1975 due to economic sanctions imposed on Rhodesia.

[2] Technical problems due to neglect of maintenance, part replacement and upgrading make the plant prone to frequent production stops.

In 2009, Namibia's NamPower made agreements to help ZESA to revive the plant's capacity in exchange for power deliveries.

[5] In December 2015 China agreed to provide a $1.2 billion loan to add 600 MW of generating capacity to the Hwange power station[6] with two additional units.