South Africa petition seeks scrap-for-cash termination

A former council representative in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, is part of a group circulating an online petition to outlaw cash payments for scrap metal as a national policy.

Former councilman Lionel Greenberg tells Recycling Today that in Johannesburg, “The systematic destruction, theft of the infrastructure and theft of power cable has severely impacted the city.”

While nations in Europe and cities and states in the United States have enacted prohibitions on cash payments for some scrap transactions to address metals theft, Greenberg says such legislation is overdue in South Africa.

Greenberg says he has “recently launched a petition” on several social media sites to encourage South Africa to adopt “a robust law to control dealing in scrap metal.”

He says the South Africa Chamber of Commerce contends that cable theft costs South Africa’s economy between $300 million and $420 million annually. “With these staggering financial figures and the targeted sectors of our economy, it is compelling to characterize cable theft as economic sabotage,” says Greenberg.

Greenberg has created a website intended to rally support for his proposed change to the scrap industry.