It is located in Kwekwe District, in the Midlands, in the centre of the country, roughly equidistant from Harare to the northeast and Bulawayo to the southwest.

Kwekwe and neighbouring Redcliff are the headquarters of Zimbabwe Iron and Steel 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, ZPC-Munyati, in Munyati, a suburb of Kwekwe.

Like much of the Midlands, KweKwe owes its prosperity to the Great Dyke and its mineral wealth which stretches down to Gwanda, some 500 km southwest.

Though the amount of gold found was underwhelming, deposits of chrome, and the production of iron, steel, aluminum and glass, have kept the city growing since.

Winters are characterised mainly by their cold nights, with an average minimum temperature of 7 °C (45 °F), and are the sunniest time of the year.

During winter, cold fronts from the Indian Ocean to the southeast, bringing cool, drizzly weather, often peaking in August and early September.

In and around the city one is assured to come across Shona, Ndebele, Chewa, Venda, Tonga language and Nambya speaking people.

The cricketer Charles Coventry also hails from Kwekwe – he is best known for equaling the ODI World Record of 194 runs in an innings.

Kwekwe has only one set of traffic lights which are just outside the city centre on a road leading to the high density suburb of Mbizo.

These two slum areas were primarily built close to the mines for the use of mineworkers, and the most successful businesses, especially local bars known as beer halls, serve this customer base.

Kwekwe has paved roads leading to Gweru, Kadoma, Mvuma and Gokwe Business Centre hence it is considered a well-connected city.

Besides being close to the geographical centre of the country, Kwekwe is also strategically located within the Midlands metropolitan area.

Kwekwe, together with Gweru, Munyati, Kadoma and Redcliff form a single customer base for local commercial enterprises.

Many self-employed miners carry out unauthorised digging work just north of the city, panning for gold, one of the most lucrative sources of income.

Other residents engage in less strenuous work as cobblers, carpenters, TV and radio repairmen, and vendors selling anything from onions to meat.

In the local mining museum on its premises stands a relic of these boom days called the Paper House, a wood and reinforced cardboard structure in striking green and white.

This two-bedroom dwelling on stilts (presumably to combat the heat and protect from termites) was home to the first mine manager, and was once slept in by Cecil John Rhodes, the colonial empire builder who was closely connected with the early development of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe's former name).

[10] Sable Chemicals produces hydrogen for ammonium nitrate required for manufacturing fertiliser using the world's largest electrolysis plant.

Despite the poor economy, some small tourist operators maintain hunting and photographic safari licences on farms and concessions near town, where an abundance of wildlife can be seen, including rhino, elephant, leopard, lion and most big antelope (such as kudu, eland, sable, and tsessebe).

Other notable attractions in the city include, Sebakwe Recreational Park, Sebakwe Dam, Echo Park and Lower Zivangwe Dam (commonly known by residents as Dutchman's Pool)[11] The member of parliament (MP) for Kwekwe Central constituency was Emmerson Mnangagwa until his defeat in the elections of 2000.

Since then, Blessing Chebundo of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has represented the district in the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

As with other Zimbabwean towns run by opposition parties, Kwekwe saw a number of politically motivated incidents during the 2000s and early 2010s, in which people were killed and arrested.