Chipata Mayor George Mwanza walking to power

… empowering Zambians beyond Chipata

By Hellen Bwalya and Derrick Sinjela

32-year-old George Mwanza was born on Tuesday, 18 January 1994 is a Zambian politician and the current Mayor of the city of Chipata.
Mayor Mwanza was elected to the position in August 2021, becoming the youngest Zambian elected to the position of mayor since Independence in 1964.
Elected as an Independent Councilor, Mayor Mwanza assumed office on Thursday, 13 August 2021, preceded by Alex Tembo
Early life
Mayor Mwanza attended Chizongwe Technical High School and is in leadership as a heartfelt vocation having dreamt to serve people as a child.
Politics
During the August 2021 elections in Zambia, Mwanza was elected as Mayor of Chipata, the capital of Zambia’s Eastern Province. He was elected on an independent ticket.
Mayor Mwanza has been a member of the Young Elected Officials of Africa Network where in October 2022, he got elected as Vice-President for Southern Africa.
Since assuming office, Mwanza’s go has been seeking to transform his jurisdiction into an inclusive, developed & better City of Chipata.

“I believe in an inclusive, developed and better City of Chipata,” vows Mayor Mwanza, a Zambian focused, revolutionary young politician, who rose from nothing to being the most influential young Zambian politician inspirational servant aspiring to lead and empower citizens beyond Chipata City.
From childhood, Mayor Mwanza grew his passion to serve the community after witnessing the mistreatment by the elder politicians of that time including grabbing land from a vulnerable defenseless mother whose only source of income was selling vegetables at the local market “Saturday market”, complimenting his father Mr. Luka Mwanza, a small scale peasant farmer could not manage to raise enough finances to meet his educational needs.
As a brilliant young child-George was identified by an Uncle who took over his secondary educational support through to completion at one of the best Boys Schools in Chipata City-Chizongwe Technical School in 2011.
With a deep passion to serve his Chipata City community, Mayor Mwanza has always been a man of the grassroots, such that in 2016 at the age of 22, a decade ago, he decided to run for Public Office as the Mayor of Chipata.
Despite being very popular due to his closeness to the grassroot Mayor Mwanza’s bid did not succeed as former Ruling Political Party leaders at that time categorically rejected adopting him as the party candidate, discriminated on an assumption of being too young to be a Mayoral aspirant.
And he didn’t have the money to possibly bribe the deciders (senior party officials), who call intra-party shots.
Having defeated a political Goliath, perhaps, biblically speaking as a ‘David’ Mwanza earned himself a name”Young Mayor” a passionate and energetic budding politician and activist as he ran for elections on Thursday, 12th August 2021.
“This time around, rejection from the political party didn’t stop him, he ran as an Independent Candidate and won against 8 other contestants with a landslide result thereby becoming the Youngest Mayor (elected) in Zambia, Southern Africa and the entire continent of Africa at the age of 27.
Trained in Public Administration, Mayor Mwanza is serving the People of Chipata with a clear transformational and development agenda built on entrenching partnerships with development partners, the grassroot citizens and clearly living his dream of being the ‘People’s Mayor’, with more ambitions in this leadership journey anchored on more selfless service to the People of Chipata, Zambia and World.
Mayor Mwanza made it to Zambia’s history books as the republic’s youngest elected mayor in August 2021 as a 27- year-old, he won the mayoral seat of Chipata City Council in the Eastern province of the country as an independent candidate on a second attempt five years after an initial run as a 22-year-old vicenarian.
Mwanza prides himself as a philanthropist and grassroots activist who has always been driven by the desire to serve vulnerable and marginalised communities, particularly youth and women.
His personal motto is to work “For an Inclusive, Developed & Better City of Chipata”, and he believes in building partnerships with development partners to achieve this.
One of the city’s achievements during his tenure was the signing of a twinning partnership with the City of Dormagen in Germany to address development needs, promote knowledge sharing and cultural exchange among the two cities.
Through this partnership, the city has started digitising some of its services following a donation of laptops, leading to enhanced transparency and revenue management.
In 2022, Mayor Mwanza was elected Vice-President of the Young Elected Officials of Africa (YELO Network), for UCLG Southern Africa.
A further testament to his work as an effective and inspirational young political office bearer, he was shortlisted for the One Young World Politician of the Year Award 2023. – Zambian Children Young People and Women in Development- Kwilanzi Newspaper Zambia ((ZCYPWD -KNZ).
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