A WIFE, mother, sister, and above all, a pillar of strength is now six feet below the ground, leaving her family and mourners at Mutumbi Cemetery broken and grieving following her electrocution.
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Dora Bwalya, 34, of Lusaka’s Chunga Compound, met her fate on Sunday after she was electrocuted by a loose electric cable that residents say they had reported days earlier but was left unattended.
Her death has not only robbed her husband Mark Mashabe of a wife, but has cut short a love story that began back in 2012 when the two first met as schoolmates during their school days.
Speaking to #Kalemba in an interview, Mark’s elder brother Evans Mapalo recalled that when Mark had nothing, Dora became his greatest source of strength.
She stood by him as he studied in poverty until, by fortune, he was recruited into the Zambia Army.
Even then, Dora still had her own ambitions. She dreamt of furthering her education and, with her husband’s encouragement, enrolled at Nkwame Nkrumah University till the time of her death.
“My young brother was jobless, the wife was a strength to this young brother. They pushed very hard through poverty,” Evans told #Kalemba.
“By God’s grace the Zambia Army recruited him. When they started to do a little bit well here and there, the wife wanted to also advance her education. My young brother pushed, took her to school.”
Last week, Dora returned home from her residentials at Nkwame Nkrumah and the family was overjoyed when she qualified into her second year.
To them, it felt like the sacrifices were beginning to pay off.
But barely two days later, tragedy struck as Dora stepped on a live 11 kilovolts cable lying at the entrance of her yard while washing and was killed instantly.
Her three-year-old child was on her back at the time, crying helplessly, but survived unharmed.
At her burial, relatives described Dora as intelligent, ambitious and a loving woman who held her home together and believed in building a future even when life seemed impossible.
To them, her death was not only devastating but unfair, a result of what they called Zesco’s gross negligence in failing to secure a cable that had been reported earlier before the incident.
Her husband Mark who was too broken to speak, ignored the common societal saying ‘mwamuna samalila’ and wept openly as he laid flowers with their child, a 12-year-old boy.
She is survived by a husband and two children.
The atmosphere at Mutumbi Cemetery was one of tears and grief as Dora was lowered into the ground, leaving behind not just a grieving family, but a love story cut short.
Pictures and story by George Musonda
Kalemba September 4, 2025
