Mazabuka

Mazabuka is a town in the Southern Province of Zambia. It is the capital of Mazabuka District, one of the thirteen administrative units in the Southern Province.

Etymology
The name Mazabuka originates from a Tonga local language word "kuzabuka" which means "To cross over the river". The name should have been "mwazabuka" which translates to "you have crossed". However, due assimilation, the name became "Mazabuka" which nonetheless translates to "you have crossed". It is believed that the name was coined after the Tonga people crossed the Kafue River near a place called Nanga during their migrations.

Location
The town is located in Mazabuka District, in Zambia's Southern Province. The town lies on the south east edge of the Kafue Flats wetland, along the Lusaka–Livingstone Road. It is approximately 135 km, by road, southwest of Lusaka, the national capital and largest city. The geographical coordinates of Mazabuka are:15°50'48.0"S, 27°44'51.0"E (Latitude:-15.846667; Longitude:27.747500). Mazabuka sits at an average elevation of 1067 m above mean sea level.

Overview
The town has grown around sugar cane plantations, and currently it hosts the headquarters of Zambia Sugar, the largest sugar-manufacturing company in Zambia, with annual output in excess of 318,467 tonne of crystalline sugar annually.

History
During World War II, 50 Polish refugees escaping from German- and Soviet-occupied Poland, were admitted in Mazabuka in 1941.

Population
In 1990, the city had 24,596 people. In 2000, the town's population was 47,148 people. During the 2010 national census and household population survey, the city had 71,700 inhabitants. The table below illustrates the same data in tabular format.

Transport
While being on the Lusaka–Livingstone Road, Mazabuka is also connected to Lusaka in the north-east and Livingstone in the south-west by the Zambia Railways line.

Education
Mazabuka is home to two well known day schools, among others,in the province. Both are grant aided schools run by the Roman Catholic missionaries. These are St Edmunds Secondary School and Mazabuka Girls Secondary School. The two have the highest enrollment of grade eights(G8) from all the primary schools. Musikili Primary School is a private boarding school for children between 5 and 13 years old. Flamboyant School, is a school for children with disabilities and is located on the outskirts of the town. It is operated by the Mazabuka Association for the Disabled.

Healthcare
Mazabuka is home to (a) Mazabuka Sugar Hospital for the management and staff of Zambia Sugar Plc and (b) Mazabuka General Hospital for the general public.

Notable people

 * Mizinga Melu, the Zambian businesswoman and bank chief executive who serves as the managing director and CEO of Absa Bank Zambia Plc, was born in Mazabuka.

Munali Nickel Mine
In September 2006 following a positive feasibility study, Albidon Limited of Australia obtained permits and approvals to mine Nickel in Mazabuka. The initial project development required more than U$180 million, which was funded by debt financing from Barclays Capital and the European Investment Bank and equity from Albidon Limited, JINCHUAN mining group of China and ZCCM Investment Holdings.

In April 2007, then Zambian President, Levy Mwanawasa launched the Munali Nickel Project at a ground breaking ceremony. The mine would be built and operated under the venture's special purpose vehicle Albidon Zambia Limited (AZL).

AZL commenced mining and production of nickel concentrates in April 2008. Operations were suspended in 2009 because of poor market conditions. From the peak of the Financial crisis of 2007 - 2008 the Mine would struggle for many years.

It was briefly owned and run by JINCHUAN mining group of China from 2010. JINCHUAN would invest U$ 37 million and employ about 350 workers. However, the mine was shut down again in 2011 due to cashflow problems.

A joint venture Mabiza Resources between Consolidated Nickel Mines Plc of the United kingdom and CE Mining took ownership in 2014 but delayed capital injection which led the government of Zambia at the time to threaten repossession of the asset. From 2015 the JV has placed in U$ 50 million investment to reboot operations at the Munali Nickel Mine. The Mine recommenced operations in 2019.

The mine is managed by an all-Zambian management team and currently has a workforce of 380 people, of which 10% are women. Munali currently exports over 10% high quality Nickel concentrate. The mine is expected to generate 3,300t of Ni in 2020, which is anticipated to reach 4,000t in 2021. Although it is billed as a nickel project, Munali also contains commercial quantities of copper, cobalt and platinum group metals (PGMs).

See Also: Mining in Zambia