Why Mwewa May Struggle to Keep Vendors Off Lusaka Streets

Lusaka Mayor Simon Chitambala Mwewa has begun a five-phase plan to move street vendors from roadsides into designated markets. He may also be confronting one of the capital's most politically difficult problems.

Zambia has been trying to control street vending for more than three decades. Under Frederick Chiluba, enforcement in the 1990s was followed by political intervention on behalf of vendors, and his government eventually established a Vendors' Desk at State House. Levy Mwanawasa later pursued a harder line through the “Keep Zambia Clean and Healthy” campaign.

Then came Michael Sata. Having built substantial political support among urban voters while in opposition, his government allowed vendors to continue trading on the streets in 2012.

Different presidents took different approaches, but the same political dilemma kept returning: clearing the streets may improve order, sanitation and mobility, but it can also immediately threaten the incomes of thousands of people.

The scale of Zambia's informal economy helps explain why. ZamStats' latest Labour Force Survey found that 71.2 percent of employed Zambians worked informally in 2024. In Lusaka Province, the figure was 55.6 percent, while 84.3 percent of employment in wholesale and retail trade was informal.

There is no reliable current count of Lusaka's street vendors that we could find, but Government told Parliament in 2018 that the city had had up to about 8,000.

Mwewa's plan attempts to address part of the problem by registering traders, allocating vacant market spaces and introducing electronic levy payments.

But Zambia's history suggests that moving vendors may be the easy part. The real test comes when traders discover they can earn more outside the markets, when enforcement becomes unpopular and when political pressure begins.

Why have successive governments struggled to solve the problem, and what would actually have to change for Mwewa's plan to succeed where others failed?