Operation Clear Path: The Human Cost of Lusaka’s Repeated Institutional Failure
The Lusaka City Council (LCC), under the banner of “Operation Clear Path,” has once again deployed law enforcement to sweep informal traders off the streets. While Mayor Chitambala Mwewa frames this forceful crackdown as a necessary intervention for public health and city sanity, the execution remains fundamentally flawed.
As I have repeatedly cautioned in previous statements, driving vendors out without first guaranteeing realistic, accessible, and functional economic alternatives is an act of governance that prioritizes aesthetics over human survival.
The council’s repetitive playbook is as predictable as it is unsustainable. Every few years, an eviction campaign is launched, livelihoods are abruptly broken overnight, and the local authority points to supposedly vacant market spaces as a universal cure. But if these official markets were truly viable, safe, and located where the public actually shops, the streets would not be teeming with traders.
Evicting thousands of citizens into functional non-existence does not solve poverty it merely forces it out of sight.
The local authority must stop hiding behind administrative figures. It is an indictment of the council’s planning that after multiple previous interventions, they still rely on heavy-handed mandates rather than systemic engagement. If the LCC is genuinely committed to a long-term transition, it must first prove that its designated markets possess proper sanitation, reliable water, active foot traffic, and above all, transparent, corruption-free allocation processes.
Until the council demonstrates that it can treat informal workers as legitimate economic stakeholders rather than an inconvenience to be managed by police force, these crackdowns will continue to fail. Urban order cannot be built on the hunger of Lusaka’s families.
Fred M’membe
SP President
The real human cost are the lives we lose to cholera. And there is currently an outbreak.
Trading can not continue in conditions where there are no toilets, no running water and no regulations. The desperation to make a living, to put food on the table should not be a priority above health concerns.
But bammembe does the streets have toilet, running water. This man’s negativity isn’t meant for a better zambia.
One would have expected a logical suggestion to these ills. He has a knack for neverending criticism without giving solutions. Let the vendors sell from the front of his home and we will see if he will think the same
Iwe Ka Membe.Institional failure is Lusaka City Council failing to station permanent council police personnel on all major streets to be turning away any street vendors arriving to set shop.Do that for at least a year and people will naturally find other legitimate and orderly means and places to trade from
By now Mr. Fred Mmembe should have done an introspection to understand why he doesn’t seem to be getting traction and win people over to his party despite being in politics for some time. He always misses the point in almost everything. Surely he should know that street vendors are not being chased from the streets and denied their a living, but they being relocated to the rightful place meant for trading. Honestly, what is wrong that doing that?
Fred M’membe, just empty talk as usual, the man is good for nothing.
By now Mr. Fred Mmembe should have done an introspection to understand why he doesn’t seem to be getting traction and win people over to his party despite being in politics for some time. He always misses the point in almost everything. Surely he should know that street vendors are not being chased from the streets and denied their a living, but they being relocated to the rightful place meant for trading. Honestly, what is wrong that in that?
I wish Fred Mmembe could show some decency, patriotism, and respect for education—since he claims to be highly educated.
Allow me to brag a little bit. I earned a distinction in “Life and Living” in Standard 1 and a distinction in Civics in Form 2; I can understand what is good for Lusaka and Zambia. Mmembe, I strongly question your ability to integrate knowledge with practice. Actually, I feel very sad for Mmembe. On the other hand, I feel angry that you misuse your God-given intelligence. In short, I am concerned about Mmembe’s mental well-being.