Fill a list of 2 lists from split string
If you're going to use map, then it's simpler to surround it in a list() call, then a list comprehension.
Rather than using list(map(list, it)), you can instead use a list comprehension.

[list(i) for i in it]

You don't need to use list(zip()), it only hinders performance and readability.
You don't have to use a list comprehension with *, instead you could use a generator comprehension.
You don't have to use f.readlines(), if you perform the comprehension in the with.


Merging this all together gets:

with open('textFile.txt') as f:
    z = [list(i) for i in zip(*(j.split() for j in f))]