Last May, Stella Mihale—a scrap metal dealer at Malangalanga in Lilongwe—experienced the worst tragedy in her business’s history: the scrap metal export ban.
The news hit her like a bombshell.
“When my scrap metals, about 150 metric tonnes (mt), arrived at Chilumba Jetty [in Karonga] on its way to Uganda and Rwanda, I got a call from my employee. He said, ‘Mama Stella, we’re being stopped. They say there’s a ban and we cannot proceed.’ I was broken, shattered and completely helpless,” Mihale tells the Director of Trade and Industry, Charity Musonzo.
Musonzo is hearing from scrap dealers, their employees and the Second Hand and Metal Dealers Association following their outcry after the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a six-month ban on May 27.
Vandalism has been an ongoing problem for years, with Lilongwe being the hardest hit, particularly in Masumbankhunda and Njewa areas, where kilometers of Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) power lines and overhead cables have been stolen for scrap.
But for Mihale, the suspension was “a stab in the back”, and “more painful” considering the huge losses she had suffered along the way.
“Within that notion lie issues of money. So, the ban meant I had to transport the cargo back to Lilongwe. In such a scenario, you do not have a choice but to dig deeper into the pocket,” she laments.
And more trouble awaited her, much to her anxiety. Two groups—her Ugandan buyer and her 25 scrap yard workers—were on her neck, demanding back their advance payment and wages, respectively.
Balancing those pressures has become a constant headache for the 60-year-old widow of three children.
Hanna Chiongo, a scrap dealer at Biwi Township, just two kilometres away, says the ban has driven most scrap dealers to total despair and misery.
“This issue, really, tears at the heart, madam,” Chiongo, while leaning against her mountain of scraps, addresses Musonzo.
According to Chiongo, scrap metal traders are being “punished because of the sins of a few unscrupulous traders who take in copper and other precious materials”.
“We’re smart merchants and we follow everything by the rules. We don’t buy copper cables or anything but we’re often blamed as buyers of stolen materials. But, let me be honest: this blame is misdirected,” she says matter-of-factly.
In the eyes of Lindiwe Palesa-Mzungu, Director for Setebos Metals, which is based in Kanengo, the moratorium on the metal trade and export is a “biggest blow to the metal sector in living history”.
“We have suffered incalculable losses, so far, due to this ban,” Palesa- Mzungu explains. “In our case, our $100,000-worth scrap metals were halted at Beira on its way to South Korea.”
Another trader, Noel Khombe, who runs Zamkutu-Bypass Road scrap yard, is equally distraught.
Khombe, who claims to have 3,000mt lying idle at his scrap yard, which has 40 workers, says the restrictions are a stumbling block not only to his business but also to the entire recycling industry in the country.
“When we export scrap metals, such as cast iron and steel, we definitely help our country in disposing of them because they’re recycled there. Our country doesn’t have the capacity to consume scrap metals,” he observes.
Scrap yard labourers say they are also feeling the ripple effects of the metal export ban.
One of the workers who have complained about the suspension is 29-year-old Ismail Ali, who is also tasked with supervising 25 other labourers, under Mihale.
Ali claims he and fellow labourers are trying their best to ensure that no copper cable or any precious metal finds its way into their employers’ scrap yards.
Patrick Jonathan, chairperson for the Second- Hand and Scrap Metal Dealers Association, agrees in the same breath.
He says, in the wake of the ban, 20,000mt worth $5.3 million are lying idle in their members’ scrap yards across the country.
“These numbers will tell you something: loss of forex because we’re talking of $5.3 million. You can see how scrap yards are helping in bringing in the much-needed forex.
“We urge you madam director [Musonzo] to have mercy on us and lift this ban so that we can continue our exports as you pursue fresh regulations regarding the trade. In the meantime, over 1.6 people, particularly in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Liwonde, Mangochi, Thyolo and Mzuzu, who rely on the sector, have been severely affected,” he says.
Alex Chapondera, chairperson for the National Anti-Vandalism Taskforce, asks the Ministry of Trade and Industry to quickly register all scrap metal dealers so as to “ease the tension” and “ensure they get back to business.”
In her response, Musonzo says the ministry “will soon hit the ground running to put every trader on paper”.
She says, as of now, the ban is still intact until “all matters are looked into by the authorities”.
“The ban is still in place but, looking at your grievances, we are going back into the office and mapping the way forward,” she says.
But some analysts have welcomed the ban, saying it could address vandalism that costs the economy billions of Kwacha a year, slowing economic growth and productivity.
Economist from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences Betchani Tchereni argues that scrap metal dealers fuel the crisis “because they take in precious metals stolen elsewhere, leading to chaos and anarchy”.
“Chaos is everywhere, all because of scrap metal dealers,” he says. “Thieves steal anything to sell for scrap. They take anything, everything. You park your bicycle one minute and the next minute it’s gone. Zomba, recently, went dry as vandals hit the pipes, hacking them off. What’s that?”
Urging scrap metal traders to assure the citizenry of sanity in their industry, Tchereni says: “We want them to convince us that these issues of vandalism will be dealt with once and for all.
Much as we know they bring in forex, they should do more by taking vandalism head-on. If they do that, then they can be in the good books with the government and all concerned stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, as the stalemate hovers around the recycling industry, three men—Michael Kambalame, 26, Umali Rashid, 35, and Chikafa Dzuwa, 41—have been jailed for seven years for vandalising K22 million-worth Escom power cables inside Dzalanyama Forest Reserve.
Escom Public Relations Officer Peter Kanjere hails the police and the court for taking action.
“We commend the police and the court of law for the swift manner in which trial, conviction and actual sentencing have been handled. These cases need to be dealt with with speed,” Kanjere says.
