The trade in salaula, Zambia's second-hand clothing, is legal, large and visible on every market. One corner of it is not. Used undergarments and nightwear are banned from import and sale, and on Sunday the Zambia Compulsory Standards Agency announced its latest enforcement of the rule: 34 bales of used underwear, valued at K37,350, seized from a shop in Lusaka during the previous week. Zambia Monitor reported the statement on Sunday night and News Diggers on Monday morning.
The agency's communications and public relations manager, Brian Hatyoka, said the operation followed a tip-off from whistleblowers that the shop was selling used undergarments contrary to the law. The shop, which neither report names, was directed to pay the cost of disposing of the consignment. Hatyoka described the seizure as part of ongoing enforcement to protect public health, and warned traders of stern action against the illegal import and sale of used textile products containing undergarments and nightwear, which the agency associates with skin rashes and fungal infections.
ZS 559 and Statutory Instrument No. 120 of 2006 prohibits the importation and sale of used textile products
— Brian Hatyoka, Manager, Communications and Public Relations, Zambia Compulsory Standards Agency, in a statement issued in Lusaka on Sunday 1 November, as reported by Zambia Monitor
The rule and the reach
The legal basis Hatyoka cited is twofold: Zambian Standard 559, the inspection and acceptance criteria for used textile products, and Statutory Instrument 120 of 2006. On the agency's reading, used undergarments and nightwear fall outside what may lawfully be imported and sold, while the wider second-hand clothing trade continues. The agency asked consumers to report any sale of banned items to its nearest office and to buy new undergarments and nightwear. The same statement recorded a visit by the agency to Kasisi Girls Secondary School's annual awards ceremony, where officers urged pupils and teachers to buy from trusted sources and consume safe products.
The value of Sunday's seizure is small. Its purpose, on the agency's own account, is the message to traders who assume the undergarment rule is not policed, and to the whistleblowers whose tip-off the agency credits for this one.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “Standards agency seizes 34 bales of used underwear valued at K37,350 in Lusaka” (1 Nov 2026); News Diggers, “ZCSA seizes 34 bales of used underwear” (2 Nov 2026).