Rufunsa District


Rufunsa District is a district of Zambia, located in Lusaka Province. The district capital is Rufunsa. The district was declared by President Sata in 2012. As of the 2001 Zambian Census, the district was not yet in place as it was still part of Chongwe District. It is estimated to have a population of about 45.000 people.
The main economic stay of the local people here is subsistence farming and hunting. After five decades of Zambia's independence, there is no government secondary school or hospital. Illiteracy levels are extremely high. The Catholic Church has given hope in the past decades in terms of providing health care. A nursing school has also been built by the Catholics. Rufunsa is only 150 km away from Lusaka and yet people live in severe poverty. The indigenous people here are the remnants of the Soli people. The Soli people are the real owners of Lusaka province but have had to relinquish much of Lusaka Land to central government. It is hoped that the creation of Rufunsa District will not be another way of incapacitating the locals in terms of land ownership. People here are watching the direction the new council will take in ensuring that indigenous people are not land disadvantaged. There are two chiefs in this district. They are chief Mumphnya and chieftainess Shikabeta. The Locals here are yet to see the kind of protection they will get from their traditional leaders in terms of land rights.