A dispute over who may advertise what, and where, on Lusaka’s streets has drawn in the city’s traditional healers. In a statement made available to Smart Eagles on Wednesday 21 October and carried by the Zambian Observer, Mayor Chitambala Mwewa said Lusaka City Council would step up enforcement against unauthorised and misleading advertisements on public infrastructure and in undesignated areas. Offenders face removal of their materials, fines and other penalties under council regulations; the statement does not name a by-law or a fine.
The mayor was responding to remarks by Dr Rodwell Vongo, president of the Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia, which the council said it had “noted with concern”. Videos circulating online had shown the mayor removing healers’ posters, Phoenix News reports. Mr Mwewa’s position is that traditional medicine is part of Zambia’s heritage and is not the target; the council removes political posters and commercial adverts in the same way, and exempting spiritual adverts would itself be discriminatory.
Our concern is not with spirituality or personal beliefs, but with the legality of the advertising medium.
— Chitambala Mwewa, Mayor of Lusaka, in a statement to Smart Eagles on Wednesday 21 October
He singled out adverts promising instant wealth, guaranteed success or miraculous outcomes that cannot be verified, saying they may exploit vulnerable people, and referred to reported cases of young people led to believe that wealth could come through criminal or ritual acts. All advertisers, he said, should obtain approvals and make claims that are truthful and lawful.
What the healers say
Dr Vongo, speaking to Phoenix News in a report carried by the Zambian Observer, asked the mayor to handle spiritual matters with an understanding of “the spiritual realm” rather than from a purely physical standpoint — while commending his effort to bring order to the city. He said his association supports measures to protect citizens and hold lawbreakers to account, condemned recent reported killings linked to promises of wealth, and offered to work with the Government to identify people falsely posing as practitioners. He urged the public to beware of unregistered healers.
Neither report gives figures for posters removed or fines issued, and the council’s statement does not say when the intensified enforcement begins.
Sources: Smart Eagles (via Zambian Observer), “Lusaka Mayor warns of stiff penalties for illegal advertisers, clarifies that the council’s crackdown is not targeting traditional healers or traditional medicine” (21 Oct 2026); Phoenix News (via Zambian Observer), “Traditional healers urge Lusaka Mayor to exercise caution when dealing with spiritual matters” (21 Oct 2026).