🇿🇲 BRIEFING | Mwewa to Be Installed as Lusaka Mayor as ‘Mwewa Effect’ Gains Momentum
Lusaka Mayor-elect Chitambala Mwewa is expected to be formally installed this afternoon, taking office after an unusually active transition period in which his campaign to clean up and restore order in the capital has already generated widespread public attention.
The installation ceremony is scheduled for 14:00 hours at the Lusaka Civic Centre after an earlier ceremony planned for September 24 did not proceed amid a legal challenge to his election.
NRPUP candidate Gabriel Kibombwe had petitioned Mwewa’s election after polling 195,041 votes against Mwewa’s 200,029 in the August 13 mayoral election.
The Local Government Elections Tribunal subsequently granted an application by consent to withdraw the petition, ruling that Mwewa remained the duly elected Mayor of Lusaka.
Despite not yet being formally installed, Mwewa has in recent days become the public face of an intensified Lusaka City Council campaign targeting street vending, illegal trading spaces, sanitation and disorder in the capital.
Under “Operation Clear Path,” the Council and Zambia Police have removed vendors from major roads in the Central Business District, including Cairo Road, Freedom Way, Lumumba Road, Chachacha Road and Ben Bella Road, while makeshift stalls and booths in undesignated trading areas have also been removed.
Mwewa says more than 14,000 trading spaces are available across 28 markets to accommodate more than 8,000 street vendors affected by the operation, insisting that the exercise is intended to move traders into designated spaces rather than deprive them of livelihoods.
The mayor-elect has also announced 24-hour patrols aimed at preventing vendors from returning to cleared streets, as volunteers and council workers continue cleaning roads, collecting garbage and unblocking drainage systems across parts of the city.
The rapid enforcement drive has generated what is increasingly being described in public discourse as the “Mwewa Effect,” as council directives and clean-up activities reshape parts of Lusaka even before the mayor formally assumes office.
Mwewa’s installation this afternoon will therefore mark the formal beginning of a term whose first policy direction is already visible: a push to restore cleanliness, enforce designated trading spaces and bring greater order to Zambia’s capital.
– The People’s Brief | Goran Handya
October 7, 2026