Mazabuka is a town in the Southern Province of

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. 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 The long Kafue River is the longest river lying wholly within Zambia. Its water is used for irrigation and for generating Hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power. It is the largest tributary of the Zambezi, and of Zambia's principal rivers, it ...

'' 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 The Kafue Flats (locally called Butwa) are a vast area of swamp, open lagoon and seasonally inundated flood-plain on the Kafue River in the Southern, Central and Lusaka provinces of Zambia. They are a shallow flood plain long and about wide,< ...

wetland, along the Lusaka–Livingstone Road. It is approximately , by road, southwest of

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

, 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 above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

Overview

The town has grown around

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

s, and currently it hosts the headquarters of Zambia Sugar, the largest sugar-manufacturing company in Zambia, with annual output in excess of of crystalline sugar annually.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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

in the north-east and Livingstone in the south-west by the

Zambia Railways Zambia Railways (ZR) is the national railway company of Zambia and one of the two major railway organisations in Zambia. The other system is the binational TAZARA Railway (TAZARA) that interconnects with the ZR at Kapiri Mposhi and provides a li ...

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 A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Absa Bank Zambia Plc, was born in Mazabuka. *

Stanley Fischer Stanley Fischer (; October 15, 1943 – May 31, 2025) was an American and Israeli economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2 ...

, an economist who served as Governor of the Central Bank of Israel, among others, was born on October 15, 1943, in Mazabuka.

Munali Nickel Mine

In September 2006 following a positive feasibility study, Albidon Limited of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

obtained permits and approvals to mine

Nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

in Mazabuka. The initial project development required more than U$180 million, which was funded by

debt financing Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Commer ...

from

Barclays Capital Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

and the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

and equity from Albidon Limited
JINCHUAN mining group
of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and ZCCM Investment Holdings . In April 2007, then Zambian President,

Levy Mwanawasa Levy Patrick Mwanawasa (3 September 1948 – 19 August 2008) was the third president of Zambia. He served as president from January 2002 until his death in August 2008. Mwanawasa is credited with having initiated a campaign to rid the corrupti ...

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. After the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

the mine struggled for many years. It was briefly owned and run b
JINCHUAN mining group
of

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 A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

Mabiza Resources betwee
Consolidated Nickel Mines Plc
of the

United kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 A concentrate is a form of Chemical substance, substance that has had the majority of its diluting agent or diluent (in the case of a liquid: the solvent) removed, such that the substance becomes the majority of the composition. Typically, this w ...

. 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 Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

and platinum group metals (PGMs). ''See Also'': Mining in Zambia

References

External links

Website of Assumption Parish Mazabuka

Website of Musikili Primary School

As at 2 February 1998. {{Authority control Mazabuka District Populated places in Southern Province, Zambia Kafue River