Zambia's artists now have a Cabinet minister whose title names them and nothing else. Christopher Chibuye, the MP for Mkushi North, was sworn in as Minister of Culture and Arts at State House on Wednesday 28 October, Zambia Monitor and Open Zambia reported, as one of 24 ministers appointed to fill the government of 30 ministries that Parliament approved the day before. Open Zambia describes him as a former PF member of Parliament.
The ministry is new. The Zambia Daily Mail's account of Tuesday's motion lists the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Arts among the five ministries dissolved and Culture and Arts and Youth and Sports among the ten created or reconstituted, and Open Zambia's list of the 30 ministries places Culture and Arts last. Youth and Sports goes to Likando Mufalali, the Senanga MP and UPND national chairperson for elections and campaigns.
The case the Vice-President made
Moving the motion, Vice-President Mutale Nalumango argued that culture and arts should be seen as an economic opportunity that can attract tourists and create jobs, the Daily Mail reported. That is the same framing State House gave the whole realignment, which it said would put the machinery of government behind the Grow Zambia Agenda; Open Zambia reported the appendix to the President's request as leaning toward the productive economy.
The change reverses one of the President's own 2021 decisions. Following his election in 2021, the Times of Zambia reported on Tuesday, the President moved the arts portfolio from the Ministry of Tourism to the Ministry of Youth and Sport. The minister who ran that combined portfolio in the first term, Elvis Nkandu, was on Wednesday given Information and Media.
What the sector will be watching
A ministry with its own minister is also a ministry with its own vote in the budget, and the budget is now due on 6 November. The sector will be reading the estimates for the first line that belongs to Culture and Arts alone. Nothing in the published documents says what the new ministry will cost to run or which functions it inherits, and no report read for this edition carried a first statement from the new minister.
Zambia Monitor reported that the President told all his new ministers to work with diligence, integrity and commitment to national unity, and to be confidential, fair, transparent and accountable. For a ministry created on the argument that culture is an economic opportunity, the measure of that argument will be in the estimates.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “'Zambia, here are your ministers,' Hichilema unveils new cabinet, portfolios (See list)” (28 Oct 2026); Open Zambia, “President Hichilema Names 24 Further Ministers to Complete His Cabinet” (28 Oct 2026); Zambia Daily Mail, “Govt rewired” (28 Oct 2026); Open Zambia, “Thirty Ministries Proposed in Hichilema's Government Realignment” (27 Oct 2026); Times of Zambia, “HH to realign ministries” (27 Oct 2026).