Stephen Manjata—The Minister who resisted leaving Kanyama compound.
Born on March 5, 1945, Manjata was a businessman, farmer, grassroots politician and one of Western Province’s more colourful political figures.
He began his political journey in the UNIP youth wing before joining the MMD in 1991, helping usher Zambia into the multiparty era.
That same year, he narrowly won the Luampa parliamentary seat, polling 2,124 votes against UNIP’s Kenneth Musangu’s 2,034.
Just 90 votes separated the two.
Manjata went on to serve as deputy minister under President Frederick Chiluba in several portfolios, including Information, Energy, Environment and Community Development.
Yet despite becoming a government minister, he remained remarkably attached to his Kanyama home.
A businessman involved in timber and charcoal, he owned several commercial vehicles, including Leylands and Land Rovers. His yard was reportedly so crowded with broken-down machinery that it sometimes looked more like a scrapyard than a deputy minister’s residence.
Manjata simply wasn’t interested in moving into a ministerial house.
Eventually, President Chiluba had to persuade his deputy minister to leave the crowded Kanyama and relocate to the more upmarket & quiet neighborhood of Rhodes Park.
In other words, the President had to convince Manjata that becoming a minister came with certain residential expectations.
But Manjata’s biggest political moment came in 1998, when he publicly accused fellow MMD and government officials of diverting hammermills meant for vulnerable communities.
At this time, Manjata was serving as community development and social services deputy minister.
Speaking to The Post, Manjata alleged that hammermills meant for rural communities were being diverted, hidden in private homes or handed over to relatives of influential people.
Now, accusing your own government colleagues of stealing is one thing.
Doing it while you are still sitting inside the same government is another.
Manjata effectively brought the family argument into the public square.
His revelations triggered a political storm, with opposition figures seizing on the allegations and demanding investigations and prosecution of those allegedly involved.
For once, the hammermill was grinding more than maize.
Manjata remained an influential grassroots organiser in Western Province throughout the 1990s.
In 2001, he returned to Parliament on the MMD ticket, securing 3,443 votes, ahead of UPND’s Martin Limata, who polled 2,486.
President Levy Mwanawasa subsequently appointed him Deputy Minister of Energy and Water Development, a position he held from around January 2002 until March 2005.
In March 2005, he finally got the promotion every deputy minister at that time waited for.
Manjata was elevated to Cabinet as Minister of Community Development and Social Services.
Unfortunately for Manjata, political careers do not come with permanent contracts.
His parliamentary career ended after the 2006 elections, when UDA’s Josephine Limata defeated him, 6,169 votes to 5,363.
He later moved from the MMD to the PF around 2011.
On October 14, 2012, Manjata died aged 67 at Lusaka Trust Hospital.
According to reports, Manjata was polygamous throughout his life, raising his children across different mothers.
At the time of his passing, he was survived by about 17 children, and over 30 grandchildren, practically a constituency of his own.
He was accorded a state funeral and a day of national mourning under President Michael Sata and was buried at Old Mulamatila Cemetery in Kaoma District.
And there is one final twist to the Manjata story:
Makozo Chikote, who would decades later become Luampa MP & Energy Minister in the UPND government, once worked as Manjata’s personal driver.
From the driver’s seat to the Cabinet table.
Zambian politics has always had interesting career paths.
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