ANC pledges support for draft policy on a temporary ban of all exports of waste and scrap metal

26 August 2022

The African National Congress (ANC) supports the draft policy proposals published by government in response to the theft and damage of infrastructure for metals to sell as waste and scrap metals or transform into semi-finished products for onwards sales domestically and internationally.

The ANC rejects suggestions that policing alone can stop cable theft as disingenuous, because there are 118 000 km of copper cable belonging to Telkom; there are 425 000 km of cable belonging to Eskom and there are 25 000 km of railway lines. The draft policy is in line with our 54th National conference outcomes and was recently supported by the 6th National policy conference which proposed "affirming that the state "consider the scraping of the scrapyard industry as that continues to perpetuate the stealing of the country's critical infrastructure". To show how seriously the ANC takes this matter, the 6th National Policy conference concluded that "The destruction and theft of and trade in public infrastructure should be treated as treason".

The ANC furthermore calls on all citizens of South Africa to support these measures proposed and help bring an end to the public infrastructure theft and damage. The national department of Trade, Industry and Competition has published draft proposals on behalf of the government on 05 August 2022 for public comment, which closes today, Friday the 26th of August 2022, providing a multi pronged approach towards addressing the theft of public infrastructure that are destroying our country and harming the lives of our fellow citizens. All citizens and stakeholders can also participate in enriching these progressive interventions by depositing their comments on [email protected] or hand delivering the same to 77 Meintjies Street, Block A, 1st Floor, Sunnyside, Pretoria, 0132 for attention the Director-General.

Issued by Pule Mabe, National Spokesperson, ANC, 26 August 2022