Princess Kasune
Princess Kasune Zulu is a Zambian politician and the member of the National Assembly of Zambia for Keembe since 2016. She is a prominent AIDS activist and the first National Assembly member to announce she was living with the condition.
Biography
Princess Kasune was born 12 November 1975 in Kabwe, the daughter of a Zambian railway police force commander. She was raised and educated as a Roman Catholic.During the Zambian AIDS epidemic, when she was 17, her mother died as a result of AIDS, quickly followed by her father. Princess Kasune married when she was 18; her older husband, Moffat Zulu, had already lost two of his previous wives to AIDS. In 1997, she took an AIDS test which came out positive, prompting her to begin a life of AIDS activism.
Initially she took an unconventional approach by giving the appearance of a prostitute and hitching lifts with long-distance lorry-drivers, who she would then lecture on the importance of condom use. She was appointed an ambassador for World Vision International's Hope Programme, and in that capacity travelled to the US in 1993 to meet President George H. W. Bush and convinced him to commit $15 billion to the fight against AIDS in Africa. She was also selected as a delegate on a 2005 "Women and AIDS U.S. Tour: Empower Women, Save Lives," tour sponsored by the United Nations. She is a host of Positive Living, a health-related radio program.
In 2016, she was elected as a member of the National Assembly of Zambia for the constituency of Keembe, as a member of the United Party for National Development. As one of her earliest acts in the Assembly, she announced she had been living with HIV since 1997 - the first assembly member to declare their HIV status. She was re-elected for Keembe constituency in 2021.
On 25 September 2023, Princess Kasune was appointed Minister of Central Province by President Hakainde Hichilema and on 5 June 2024, Kasune was appointed as the county's first ever female Minister of Justice, replacing Mulambo Haimbe, who was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Princess Kasune has a master's degree in divinity, and a Masters in Non-Profit Administration.