•ZULU

By MIRIAM ZIMBA –

HERS is a story of moving from owning a house of her own, to that of destitution and subsequently to being a dependant.
Born in 1949 to late freedom fighter Bathsheba Daka, Margaret Zulu was one of the many Zambians who benefited from Michael Sata’s generosity and is able to attest to President Sata’s compassion for the poor.
She first met Mr Sata in 1993, when she heard about him spearheading an initiative aimed at empowering Zambians with houses in various townships across the country.
Despite many sections of society describing Mr Sata as a tough, no-nonsense person, Ms Zulu was determined to take a risk and present her plight to him.
‘‘I went to his office and asked the secretary if I could be allowed to see Mr Sata. When the secretary asked me about the purpose of my visit, I stood my ground and was not ready to be intimidated by the secretary,” she recounted.
‘‘Even without a prior appointment, I was more than determined to meet with Mr Sata. When he overheard the conversation between his secretary and me, he asked her to let me into his office,” she said.
Ms Zulu explained to Mr Sata how she was suffering as a result of not having her own accommodation, and being a man with a big heart, Mr Sata took pity on her and handed her a set of keys for a two bedroomed house in Lusaka’s Chilenje Township.
This was during Mr Sata’s tenure as Local Government and Housing minister That was one thing Ms Zulu would forever remain indebted to Mr Sata for as she was taken out of poverty.
She was empowered with a house which her husband and herself decided to rent out v in order to generate some income.
However, the benefits that come with owning a house were not long lasting for Ms Zulu.
Barely a year after benefiting from Mr Sata’s noble act, her husband secretly sold off the house to their tenant without Ms Zulu’s knowledge.
“I only discovered when I went to the Lusaka City Council with a view of paying my ground rates. I was shocked to be informed that the title property I was referring to was under a name that matched with that of my tenant.
“The council officials informed me that the changes to the title deed were made by my husband after he sold the property to the tenant,’’ she said.
At hearing that, Ms Zulu’s heart sunk.
She could not believe that she had moved on from being a property owner to the destitution of being a tenant once again.
“ When I got home that day, I asked my husband why he decided to sell off our house without my knowledge, but he could not avail me with a satisfactory explanation. He was not even able to account for the money he realised from the sale of the house. He could only point to the ‘Morris chair’ that he had bought for our sitting-room,” she recounted.
The only explanation her husband gave her was that he had figured out that because he and his wife were not in formal employment, they were better off selling the property because to raise some money.
She was unable to take any legal action on her husband’s actions because he died soon after selling the house, leaving her Zulu in dire stress and wondering how to source for funds to sustain her family.
“I decided to shift back into the house my mother had left in
Marapodi Township, but to my dismay, I found that the house had been grabbed by her relatives who had also unscrupulously changed the title deeds to their names,” she narrates.
Today, she struggles to raise money to sustain her family and is currently being accommodated at her daughter’s house in Marapodi Township.
In the 1960s, Ms Zulu was among the youth who actively participated in riots to protest against colonial rule.
“We used to destroy school property and start fires as a way of displaying our displeasure against colonial rule,” she explained.
Whenever freedom fighters like her mother and others held secret meetings at home, Ms Zulu’s role was to ensure that she prepared snacks such as ziwaya (roasted maize maize) while keeping with her friends in case inspectors sent by the colonial maters to arrest and detain freedom fighters appeared.
“ When we would be preparing ziwaya outside, passers-by would not suspect there could be a ‘secret meeting’ taking place in our house, hence the inspectors would not stop to inspect.
After that, life became unbearably tough in Kabwe where she was residing at the time.
Ms Zulu’s family migrated to Lusaka in view of better prospects for survival.
The first place they settled in when they got to Lusaka was Marapodi Township where her mother was given a small piece of land to construct a shelter.
“We lived in Kasangula area of Marapodi, near where UNIP would hold their meetings.
In order to sustain her family, Ms Zulu’s mother brewed traditional alcohol which was considered illegal by the colonial masters.
“ We had to devise smart ways of hiding the alcohol outside the house.
We could dig large trenches so as to prevent the authorities from accessing the places where we hid the alcohol,” she recounted.
Ms Zulu’s mother was one of the many Zambians who were arrested and detained in Southern Rhodesia for smuggling UNIP membership cards.
When she got wind of the arrest of her mother, Ms Zulu who was at the time expecting her first child, travelled to Southern Rhodesia and challenged the authorities to set her mother free and instead incarcerate her.
“My mother was released, but they could not however, detain me on compassionate grounds due to the advanced state of my pregnancy,’’ she said.
Although her mother who was a freedom fighter died in 2001, Ms Zulu was recognised as a daughter of a freedom fighter in 2007.
All efforts to return to Mr Sata to narrate her ordeal proved
unsuccessful thereafter, and following the death of Mr Sata, Ms Zulu has completely lost all hopes of ever owning her own house.
As the rest of the country mourns Mr Sata, Ms Zulu will remember him for selfless act of kindness toward her, and only wishes that she still had her house which she would have dedicated to his memory.