For Immediate Release,
02 December 2022
SATAWU WELCOMES THE BAN OF SCRAP METAL SALE
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union welcomes the six months ban of scrap
metal trade by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The organisation strongly
believes that this decision will stop criminals from destroying our Metrorail Sector and the
infrastructure which are costing government billions of rands and collapsing the economy of this
country.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union together with the Passenger Rail Agency
of South Africa, are currently in the process of refurbishing and rebuilding the vandalised corridors
due to cable theft. The cable theft has collapsed the biggest entities in this country, the Passenger
Rail Agency of South Africa and Transnet, starting from the Lockdown regulations in 2020 until
today. SATAWU is of the view that implementing the ban of scrap metals will play a huge role in
rebuilding our Metrorail Sector, and struggling economy of South African.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union has previously called on government to
consider banning the scrap metal trade, the union stated that criminals are targeting our train
stations to make money. We are very happy that government has officially and finally taken our
request into consideration, we know that there will be a huge improvement in the sector.
The criminality of cable theft does not only negatively affect our members and workers at PRASA
but ordinary South Africans as these criminals also steal cables such as electricity and water
cables. We once again wish to call on law enforcement agencies to arrest those who keep on
vandalizing our infrastructure. They need to face the law and pay for their criminal activities.
Issued By SATAW