Government wants ban on scrap metal export to save railways, Eskom

South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has called for the export of scrap metal to be banned. This would ensure that there was no market for the copper, rail and other infrastructure that gets stolen and sold across the country.

Gordhan was among economics cluster ministers fielding questions from MPs at Parliament on Wednesday.

“There is absolutely no doubt that copper theft and rail theft and other infrastructure theft and vandalism is having a major and disastrous effect on the efficiency of logistics in South Africa,” Minister Gordhan said. Gordhan has called for strong action to curb the scourge.

“It is my firm view that the export of scrap metal must be banned for a while, for a start, and that will ensure that there’s no market externally for the theft or those sorts of infrastructure that are stolen or vandalised in one way or another,” he said.

Gordhan said that the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition was looking at measures to deal with the issue.

Eskom is SA’s most hated company. For nearly 15 years, the electricity supply has been unstable. As load shedding gets worse, the public has questioned whether Eskom can be saved.