Livelihoods or Cleanliness: The Economics Behind Africa’s Vendor Crackdowns

Lusaka, Harare and Accra are moving traders off their pavements. The pavements keep filling up again. Is the problem the vendor, or the plan?

The Man Who Pulled Down His Own Shop

For more than five years, Maxwell Mwenda traded from a makeshift shop on Lumumba Road. As the council’s 29 September deadline passed, he did not wait for the police. He pulled the shop down himself. “I don’t even know where to start from,” he told the [Lusaka Times] [1].

He is one of more than 8,000 vendors moved out of the city centre under Operation Clear Path, a council and police drive launched on 3 October [2][3]. Residents praise the cleaner streets [4], and with 130 cholera cases in Lusaka District, the case for acting is real [3].

The harder question is what happens to Maxwell next?

Who Is on the Street, and Why

Zambia’s 2025 Labour Force Survey, found informal work makes up 63.4% of all employment, and about 2.09 million people aged 15 to 24 are not in employment, education or training [5]. A 2025 University of Zambia survey of 150 Lusaka vendors found 58% were aged 24 or under, and the largest group earned between K50 and K100 a day [6].

Even the scale is disputed. Mayor Chitambala Mwewa counts about 8,000 street vendors and more than 15,000 vacant market spaces [7]. The Zambia Institute of Architects puts Lusaka’s informal traders at 250,000 to 350,000, against just over 11,000 designated spaces in the 31 main township markets [1]. Can a city plan a move without knowing how many people it is moving?

The Arithmetic Nobody Has Published

The official case is order, sanitation and revenue. Vendors must trade from markets where, in the Mayor’s words, “they pay rent to the council electronically” [1]. The council says those markets offer “better sanitation conditions, security and customer access” [2]. Since 2023, councils have been told not to collect levies from street vendors, because doing so would legalise the trade [8].

The council budgeted K63.4 million in levies for 2026, about K174,000 a day [9]. If the 8,000 moved vendors took K50 to K100 a day each, their combined takings would be K400,000 to K800,000 a day [6][7]. How much survives the walk from a busy pavement to a market stall? No one has published the answer.

And the markets themselves? In August, News Diggers reported suspected ruling-party cadres forcing marketeers to pay as much as K1,000 to keep trading, with arrests at City Market [10]. City Market and Soweto Market are among those vendors are now directed to [2].

A Film Lusaka Has Seen Before

In January 2018, during a cholera outbreak, soldiers broke down vendors’ stalls [11]. By October 2019, vending had formally resumed on Lumumba Road between 18:00 and 20:00 by ministry direction, and one trader said “the markets are also full and some have no business” [12]. The Times of Zambia notes that past clean-ups “achieved initial success, only for vendors to return within weeks” [2]. Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe calls it a “repetitive playbook” [13].

Not Only Zambia

Harare’s Operation Chenesa, launched on 9 September, affected 2,475 businesses in two weeks, yet vendors were back on First Street, zimDaily reported [14]. In Accra, the Metropolitan Assembly began clearing pavements behind a “red line” in February [15]. By October, Accra Central traders were back on the roadside, asking for a designated market [16].

Is the enforcement failing, or the design?

Other Routes Exist

The council is enforcing the Markets and Bus Stations Act of 2007 [21], which replaced the colonial Markets Act of 1937, under which councils could ban the sale of specified goods “within any specified area… except in a market” [17][18]. The 2007 Act also lets a council “designate any place for a specified period as a market street” [17]. Lusaka tried a version of this on Lumumba Road in 2019 [12].

This week (Oct 2026) Mayor Mwewa is in Busan, South Korea, leading Zambia’s delegation to the Global Tourism City Summit to “benchmark how leading international cities integrate tourism into urban planning” [19]. In the same country, Seoul decided in 2018 to give street stalls legal status and licences “instead of crackdown or regulation”, after years of work by a committee that included vendors’ groups [20].

The Bottom Line

Why chase your own people off the pavement when other cities license them? Why move people before counting them? Why not publish footfall in the receiving markets? Why not use street-trading powers already in Zambian law?

Lusaka has swept these pavements before. The real test is whether Maxwell Mwenda is still trading, legally and profitably, a year from now.

For deeper insights subscribe to [Africa vs The Future](https://www.africavsthefuture.xyz).

References

1. Musokotwane, M. (2026). Mwewa’s Street Clearance Is A Bold Step For Lusaka, But Where Will 250,000 To 350,000 Traders Go? Lusaka Times [https://www.lusakatimes.com/2026/10/01/mwewas-street-clearance-is-a-bold-step-for-lusaka-but-where-will-250000-to-350000-traders-go/](https://www.lusakatimes.com/2026/10/01/mwewas-street-clearance-is-a-bold-step-for-lusaka-but-where-will-250000-to-350000-traders-go/)
2. Nkinke, F. (2026). From clearance to control. Times of Zambia [https://times.co.zm/from-clearance-to-control/](https://times.co.zm/from-clearance-to-control/)
3. The Zambian Economist. (2026). Operation Clear Path: LCC and Police to Remove Street Vendors From Lusaka CBD From 3 October. [https://zambianeconomist.com/operation-clear-path-lusaka-street-vendors-3-october-2026/](https://zambianeconomist.com/operation-clear-path-lusaka-street-vendors-3-october-2026/)
4. Kabwe, K. (2026). Lusaka residents happy with CBD hygiene. Lusaka Times [https://www.lusakatimes.com/2026/10/12/lusaka-residents-happy-with-cbd-hygiene/](https://www.lusakatimes.com/2026/10/12/lusaka-residents-happy-with-cbd-hygiene/)
5. Zambia Statistics Agency. (2026). Zambia’s Unemployment Rate Declines to 9.9 Percent. [https://www.zamstats.gov.zm/zambias-unemployment-rate-declines-to-9-9-percent/](https://www.zamstats.gov.zm/zambias-unemployment-rate-declines-to-9-9-percent/)
6. Kaoma, M. C., & Saili, M. (2025). The Effects of Street Vending on Zambia’s Tax Revenue: Challenges and Strategies for Formal Integration. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Publications, 7(10), 36–46. [http://ijmrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IJMRAP-V7N9P126Y25.pdf](http://ijmrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IJMRAP-V7N9P126Y25.pdf)
7. ZamJob News. (2026). LCC to deploy 24-hour [surveillance] for street vending. [https://www.zamjob.com/news-details.php?nid=412](https://www.zamjob.com/news-details.php?nid=412)
8. Lusaka Times. (2023). Local Government Directs Local Authorities To Stop Collecting Levies From Street Vendors. [https://www.lusakatimes.com/2023/02/17/local-government-directs-local-authorities-to-stop-collecting-levies-from-street-vendors/](https://www.lusakatimes.com/2023/02/17/local-government-directs-local-authorities-to-stop-collecting-levies-from-street-vendors/)
9. Sichula, A. (2026). Lusaka City Council approves K1.15 billion budget for 2026, up 7% from 2025. Zambia Monitor [https://www.zambiamonitor.com/lusaka-city-council-approves-k1-15-billion-budget-for-2026-up-7-from-2025/](https://www.zambiamonitor.com/lusaka-city-council-approves-k1-15-billion-budget-for-2026-up-7-from-2025/)
10. Jere, S. (2026). ZNS pounces on cadres harassing traders at Soweto, Buseko markets. News Diggers! [https://diggers.news/local/2026/08/23/zns-pounces-on-cadres-harassing-traders-at-soweto-buseko-markets/](https://diggers.news/local/2026/08/23/zns-pounces-on-cadres-harassing-traders-at-soweto-buseko-markets/)
11. Phiri, P. (2018). Zambian Street Vendors Say Barring Them Is Not the Answer to the Cholera Epidemic. Global Press Journal [https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/zambia/zambian-street-vendors-say-barring-not-answer-cholera-epidemic/index.html](https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/zambia/zambian-street-vendors-say-barring-not-answer-cholera-epidemic/index.html)
12. Chisengela, N. (2019). We are too many to fit along Lumumba road — street vendors. Zambian Business Times [https://zambianbusinesstimes.com/we-are-too-many-to-fit-along-lumumba-road-street-vendors/](https://zambianbusinesstimes.com/we-are-too-many-to-fit-along-lumumba-road-street-vendors/)
13. Lutena, K. (2026). Lusaka council’s ‘operation clear path’ only forcing poverty out of sight, not solving it — M’membe. Zambia Monitor [https://www.zambiamonitor.com/lusaka-councils-operation-clear-path-only-forcing-poverty-out-of-sight-not-solving-it-mmembe/](https://www.zambiamonitor.com/lusaka-councils-operation-clear-path-only-forcing-poverty-out-of-sight-not-solving-it-mmembe/)
14. Nyoni, S. (2026). Operation Chenesa: Harare Sweeps Its Pavements, and the Pavements Sweep Back. zimDaily [https://www.zimdaily.com/article/2026-09-29-operation-chenesa-vendors/](https://www.zimdaily.com/article/2026-09-29-operation-chenesa-vendors/)
15. Accra Metropolitan Assembly. (2026). AMA rolls out CBD decongestion enforcement; Mayor orders traders off pavements, warns against extortion. [https://www.ama.gov.gh/news-details.php?n=NjhyMHNycXM5NjA5bnI5ODVyOG5zMXMzbnNyOTlyb3JybjJxczI0NA%3D%3D](https://www.ama.gov.gh/news-details.php?n=NjhyMHNycXM5NjA5bnI5ODVyOG5zMXMzbnNyOTlyb3JybjJxczI0NA%3D%3D)
16. Adomonline. (2026). Adom Trotro: Traders return to high street after decongestion exercise. [https://www.adomonline.com/adom-trotro-traders-return-to-high-street-after-decongestion-exercise/](https://www.adomonline.com/adom-trotro-traders-return-to-high-street-after-decongestion-exercise/)
17. Parliament of Zambia. (2007). The Markets and Bus Stations Act, №7 of 2007 (via ZambiaLII). [https://media.zambialii.org/media/legislation/35247/source_file/1a4cbf5e2396de4e/zm-act-2007-7-publication-document.pdf](https://media.zambialii.org/media/legislation/35247/source_file/1a4cbf5e2396de4e/zm-act-2007-7-publication-document.pdf)
18. ZambiaLII. (1937, consolidated 1996). Markets Act, Chapter 290. [https://zambialii.org/akn/zm/act/1937/21/eng@1996-12-31](https://zambialii.org/akn/zm/act/1937/21/eng@1996-12-31)
19. 5FM Radio Zambia. (2026). Zambia Seeks Global Partnerships to Drive Tourism Growth and Investment. [https://5fmradiozambia.com/zambia-seeks-global-partnerships-to-drive-tourism-growth-and-investment/](https://5fmradiozambia.com/zambia-seeks-global-partnerships-to-drive-tourism-growth-and-investment/)
20. Seoul Metropolitan Government. (2018). Seoul to offer legal status to street stalls. [https://english.seoul.go.kr/seoul-to-offer-legal-status-to-street-stalls/](https://english.seoul.go.kr/seoul-to-offer-legal-status-to-street-stalls/)
21. Makasa, M. C. (2026). LCC gives street vendors September 29 deadline. Diamond Media [https://diamondtvzambia.com/lcc-gives-street-vendors-september-29-deadline/](https://diamondtvzambia.com/lcc-gives-street-vendors-september-29-deadline/)