Zevyanji Sinkala, the Newest Face on a Commission Under Scrutiny

A LAWYER FROM OUTSIDE THE ELECTION-MONITORING WORLD

Unlike Chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis or Commissioner McDonald Chipenzi, Sinkala arrives at the ECZ from neither a judicial career nor a civil society and election-monitoring background. He is a practising lawyer, holding a Master of Laws from the University of Zambia, and is the founder and Managing Partner of ZS Legal Practitioners, a Lusaka firm specialising in dispute prevention and resolution, taxation, immigration, litigation and public policy work.

Before his ECZ appointment, he chaired the Board of the Zambia Airports Corporation Limited, giving him experience governing a major state enterprise rather than running elections directly.

Sinkala's public profile extends beyond law into media and advocacy. He describes himself as co-founder and CEO of Money Media Africa and co-founder of Money FM Business Radio, alongside describing himself as a "Climate Change & Gender Advocate." That combination, commercial law, state enterprise governance, and business media, makes him a different kind of appointee from any of his three colleagues profiled so far in this series.

THE APPOINTMENT

President Hakainde Hichilema appointed Sinkala Commissioner in April 2026, in the same announcement that elevated Mukanda to Vice Chairperson, both subject to parliamentary ratification. He was sworn in at State House on 14 May 2026, alongside Mukanda. At the ceremony, Hichilema said Sinkala's appointment "demonstrated commitment to duty" and should encourage young people, framing it as evidence that leadership roles remain open to a new generation, language that suggests Sinkala is notably younger than several of his fellow commissioners, though MUVI has not confirmed his exact age.

Sinkala's arrival drew some public scepticism online over the timing, reshaping part of the Commission's membership just months before a general election, though the criticism reported at the time centred on the timing of the appointments generally rather than on Sinkala individually.

A COMMISSIONER FOR THE FIRST TIME, IN THE MOST CONTESTED ELECTION IN RECENT MEMORY

Sinkala's appointment means he has had no prior experience on the Commission before being thrust into managing its most turbulent count in recent history, the 14 August suspension of results, competing declarations of victory, and the disputed security incidents MUVI has covered separately, all arriving within his first four months in the role. Where Mukanda and Ambassador Ndiyoi Mutiti bring nearly six years of institutional continuity to this moment, and Zaloumis and Chipenzi bring roughly three, Sinkala is, by tenure, the least experienced person on the Commission at precisely the moment that experience matters most.

This concludes MUVI's expanded series profiling the current five members of the Electoral Commission of Zambia.