Kabulonga family terrified to live in haunted house, but is it ghosts or rats?
SIMON MUNTEMBA writes
TALES of objects moving on their own and people finding themselves outside when they are supposed to be sleeping in their beds were yesterday recounted by a caretaker at a Lusaka house believed to be haunted.
These and more, are some of the strange happenings at a Kabulonga house belonging to the Mozambican government.
The house has been under the care taker for close to 30 years and never been occupied by the Mozambicans to whom it was given by the first republican president, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.
The house, near St Maryās Girl in Lusakaās Kabulonga area, has been home to the Mutisi family for close to 27 years.
Apart from the encounters with ghosts or spiritual beings, the family is living in squalor and dirty surroundings not fit for human habitation.
A Sun team that visited the house to find out about the haunting, was greeted by strong smells of rot and dirt.
The family has become enslaved to the house despite its purported haunting situation because they are still waiting for benefits of their late father, which the embassy has promised to settle.
Speaking on behalf of other family members, Mathews Mutisi, 40, told the Lusaka Sun that the house they have been living in since 1992 before their parents died, was haunted and at night there were strange noises and other strange things happening.
Mwansa disclosed that the house which is on Leopard Hill road belonged to the Mozambican embassy and that his father who worked as a security guard for the embassy stayed in the house from 1992 till his death in 2004.
The surviving family members have continued living in the same unkempt house with broken water pipes and falling ceiling boards.
The toilet pans are also broken and the family uses an outdoor facility as bathroom.
āBa tate benzo Sebenza ku Mozambican embassy as a guard. Banabatenga kuti azikhala pano as a caretaker. After bafa batate mu 2004, ba embassy ndiye banathandiza pa maliro. But sibamabwelako kuno.
āMy late father was a guard and a caretaker of this house. He was an employee of Mozambique embassy but since his death on October 24, 2004, we have not received his benefits. My mother (Rose Mwansa) died here some two years ago. She was involved in an accident when she was coming from prayers,ā he said.
He narrated that the family has since engaged some clergy who regularly perform rituals of exorcism in the house.
Before retiring at night, the family sprays anointed oil and water in the house for
āVibanda veve vilipoā¦ Iyi nyumba ili navibanda. Kumankhala kutila salt, milk na unga munyumba umu kuti vibanda vitabe monga anatiuzila ba pastor. Mulivibanda umu kumankhala sometimes kulotalota bakupisha, olo ngati wagona munyumba upeza ati uli panja. Malaiti yamayaka from nowhere, chongo chodabwisa mu ceiling board na ma doors aseguliwa but amene asegula sitimuona. Tipemphela pogona kuti tigoneko,ā he said.
At night, he said, ghosts could be heard opening doors and making all sorts of noise in the house at night.
He called on well-wishers to come to their aid saying they would want to leave the house but could not because they have nowhere to go.
WHY HAS THE EMBASSY NOT OCCUPIED THE HOUSEā¦.