By Zuko Komisa
The South African government has imposed a six-month ban on the export of copper scrap.
As part of the first three-phase intervention to stop the rife theft of metals used in public infrastructure, the South African government has placed a six-month ban on the export of copper and copper-alloy scrap as well as the majority of ferrous scrap.
According to estimates, theft and vandalism have caused R47 billion in economic damage, which has made load shedding and the interruption of freight and passenger train services worse.
Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Evert Swanepoel, Chairperson of the Copper Development Association Africa, who broke down how this ban will affect South Africans.
LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE:
Ebrahim Patel, the minister of trade, industry, and competition, has said that the temporary export ban will take effect on November 30 following the publication of a Government Gazette.
According to Patel, this intervention is meant to make an effort to balance the requirements of the general economy and society with those of businesses and people whose commercial interests may be adversely impacted.
“We’ve looked carefully at both sides of the equation … and on the one side these measures will limit, for a period, the export of these products, but scrap metal traders are still enabled to sell those products within the domestic market; beyond that period, exports would be permitted but on a regulated basis.
“There is no question about it that there is going to be a commercial cost to some of the businesses that have built their economic model around the export of scrap metal. “
“[However], when we measure that against the enormous costs to the economy of doing nothing, it is absolutely clear the economic cost of doing nothing is substantially higher,” said Patel.
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