Chitambala Mwewa Relocates Lusaka Street Vendors

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Lusaka street vendors are being moved into designated markets as Mwewa frames the relocation as a staged cleanup of Zambia’s capital. The push follows a national government directive that street vending remains prohibited.

Lusaka Lusaka City Council, under mayor-elect Simon Chitambala Mwewa, whose election is under a court petition, has begun relocating street vendors into designated markets, arguing that a functional city cannot coexist with unregulated street vending. The move extends a policy line that Zambia’s Local Government Ministry set in June 2025, when it ordered traders back to markets and said street vending remains prohibited.

A staged cleanup of the capital

Mwewa has described the relocation as a phased cleanup rather than a sudden eviction. He told News Diggers that it is impossible to have a functional city with street vending, signalling that enforcement will continue under his incoming administration.

The mayor-elect’s position aligns with a broader government stance. In June 2025, the Local Government Ministry directed vendors to return to markets, and councils including Chingola and Livingstone have pursued their own relocations and clearances.

For Lusaka, the pattern is familiar. Market relocations have historically involved clearing central business district space and shifting vendors to peripheral markets, often framed as urban renewal.

Who controls foot traffic and cash flows

Relocation is not simply urban housekeeping. It determines who controls access to foot traffic, rents, levies and political patronage in crowded informal economies.

Lusaka’s informal trading sector is a major source of daily income for thousands of households. Moving vendors into formal markets consolidates commercial control around designated sites and the local authorities that manage them.

Recent cases show councils pairing enforcement with market construction funding. Chingola allocated K3 million for a central business district market, while George Compound received more than K1 million in constituency development funding for a market shelter.

The national policy backdrop

Zambia’s street-vendor battles sit inside a wider African urbanisation story. Informal trade is tolerated, regulated or cleared depending on fiscal pressure, election politics and state capacity.

The current dispute is less about ideology than about who captures urban space, cash flows and political loyalty in an economy still dominated by informality. Vendors often return to the streets after clearances when formal markets lack customers or affordable space.

For investors and professionals watching Zambia, the relocation signals how local authorities are using planning powers to reshape commercial geography. It also reveals the tension between formalisation goals and the livelihoods of informal traders.

Regional read-through for Southern Africa

Zambia’s approach mirrors relocations in other Southern African cities where informal trade dominates central districts. The pattern is familiar: clear the streets, build or designate markets, and absorb vendors into formal systems.

What differs is the political timing. Mwewa’s push comes as a newly elected mayor seeks to demonstrate control over the capital’s public space and revenue streams.

The outcome will depend on enforcement consistency and whether vendors accept the new sites. If peripheral markets fail to attract customers, traders often drift back to the streets.

The great-power and governance angle

Zambia’s vendor relocations are not directly tied to great-power competition, but they reflect a governance challenge common across Africa’s fast-growing cities. Informal economies absorb labour that formal sectors cannot, making sudden displacement politically risky.

The relocation push also connects to broader debates about urban planning, state capacity and the informal sector’s role in African economies. These themes run through our coverage of Africa: The New Scramble.

For now, the Lusaka case is a local policy story with national implications. How Mwewa manages vendor resistance will shape his early mayoralty and signal the government’s appetite for enforcement.

What to watch next

The key test is whether Lusaka’s relocation is enforced consistently or stalls amid vendor pushback. Past clearances in Zambia have often been followed by traders returning to the streets.

Watch for announcements on market capacity, fee structures and any compensation or support for displaced vendors. The next election cycle will also influence how aggressively the policy is pursued.

If Mwewa succeeds in keeping the central business district clear, other councils may follow with their own enforcement drives. If vendors return, the policy could quietly lose momentum.

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