21 Apr 2014

Ms Christinah Mutemwa of Kazungula sustains her family through her innovative idea of making polish with plastics, tar, sta-soft and milk plastic bottles.

Like any other hardworking single mother, Ms Mutemwa is a living example of how simplicity can give one a sustainable life. In 2006, Ms Mutemwa was trained in Pandamatenga by her husband’s sisters and aunts on how to make polish for a living.

They moulded her and perfected her skills until 2010 that she parted ways with the family and now dwells in Kazungula, where she makes her polish. She said her business started by virtue of her household chores of cleaning and keep her room shinning.

Ms Mutemwa said one of her friends asked her why her house was darkish and yet shining and she explained her steps on making the exquisite polish.

She said she first burns the five metres long clear plastic depending on the litres of the paraffin she has, the burning process takes about 10-20 minutes including the sta-soft and milk plastic bottles.

Furthermore, she explained that the reason why she uses these ingredients is not for thickness but for endurance as polish sticks better to the floor for a longer period with plastic added to it.

After the plastic is well burnt, she then goes on to add the candles that help the plastic mixture from drying up, then she stirs them for a minute so as to make the ingredients evenly combined.

The paraffin gets added soon after the stirs on the plastics and candle mix mainly to also further soften the ingredients from drying up quickly and for shining.

Ms Mutemwa said she then she stirs and adds three tablespoons of melted tar, which act as a colorant ingredient with another added to enhance the lasting period of the polish on the floor after use.

The last process of Ms Mutemwa’s recipe of floor polish is to put out the fire and use only the charcoal created by the fire and allows it to cool for 30 minutes.

She explained that she does not use the fire because the ingredients at that stage are highly flammable.

Ms Mutemwa said she then stirs it for a little while and pours it in her 20 litres of sales container to let it dry for one to two hours, depending on the weather on that day and sometimes it takes longer when it is too hot.

She said she uses empty containers of cobra polish to weigh her polish and sells it to her customers at P15.

Ms Mutemwa said her finished product is sold from Kasane to Parakarungu and the mode of communication and reaching the customer is through the phone.

She said she also provides Elephant Valley Lodge and Liya Guest Lodge with her product at P350 for the whole bucket of 20 litres.

Ms Mutemwa said she loves what she does for herself and her children.

Without a job and as a single mother, she said she is doing well with her polish production and hopes for a bigger scale operation so she can work with others and provide for a greater number of people and even at national level.

She also said a start-up capital for a bigger business was challenging because she also sustains herself from the profits gained from the sales. Ends