Luanda, Aug. 4, 2024 (Lusa) - The sale of scrap metal is a profitable activity in Angola and can bring in up to €1,000 per tonne, a business in the sights of the authorities because it is fuelled by vandalised material, although the dealers assure that it is honest work.
In Luanda, scrap dealers buy all kinds of material by weight, whether it's metal such as iron, copper and aluminium or paper and plastic, products supplied by young waste pickers who camp out around rubbish containers and dumps every day in search of a living.
They deny that they vandalise public property for their own benefit, at a time when the authorities have decided to tighten the grip with greater inspection of improvised establishments and warehouses in Luanda's neighbourhoods, which buy this material to resell to metal and/or recycling factories.
The business is mainly run by young people and teenagers, who have become the preferred partners of the so-called weighing houses, which are largely run by West African citizens who set the price of the goods.
A kilo of iron is worth 100 kwanzas (€0.1), a kilo of aluminium between 400 kwanzas (€0.4) and 700 kwanzas (€0.73), depending on the quality, and a kilo of copper, which is more valuable, can fetch up to 2,500 kwanzas (€2.6).
"We can weigh up to 8 kilos of iron a day, some days we have a lot of iron and others not so much," street dweller Minguito André, 18, a scrap dealer in Luanda's Bairro Operário, told Lusa.
Sitting with friends around containers in the interior of Bairro Operário, in the urban district of Sambizanga, Minguito assured that the metals he sells come from his "sacrifice" and not from acts of vandalism.
Collecting scrap metal to sell "is fair work" to ensure food for the stomach and support other vices, said António Paulo, 17, carrying a bag with a few kilos of scrap metal.
"We don't steal, these irons we pick up right here," said Afonso Paulo, 20, who was roused from his sleep by the presence of Lusa near his workplace, which he calls a "slab".
Houses and small warehouses for weighing scrap metal are scattered throughout Luanda and some have been closed down by order of the municipal administrations in order to combat the vandalising of public property.
The phenomenon has taken on worrying proportions and has given rise to a new draft bill on the offences of vandalism of public goods and services, with penalties of up to 15 years in prison.
Those who are still in business, run mainly by foreign nationals from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso, say that the business can bring in up to a million kwanzas (€1,000) per tonne, lamenting the "tightening" of controls.
"Yes, we have a lot of customers, we receive more iron. After storing the material here, we take it to the factory and there we sell a tonne worth 1 million kwanzas and per month we can get between four and five tonnes," said Isánio Teixeira, a scrap warehouse operator.
Using a semi-industrial scale, Isánio and his colleague Narciso Ambrósio, who are very wary of the inspection officials, who have intensified their presence in these places, assured that they don't buy stolen material.
"This material isn't stolen, they (collectors/sellers) pick it up from rubbish dumps and others buy it from construction sites and then come and sell it," explained Ambrósio, inside a small room where he stores huge quantities of scrap metal.
In Sambizanga, in Marçal, in the urban district of Rangel, and in Mulenvos de Cima, in the municipality of Viana, in the Angolan capital, some establishments were closed down for allegedly encouraging vandalism of public property.
The Viana Municipal Directorate for the Supervision and Inspection of Economic Activities and Food Safety affixed stamps temporarily suspending activity at various points.
Gomes Domingos Francisco, 25 years old, expressed his sadness at the suspension of activity at the warehouse where he has worked for five years, saying that the establishment did not buy electrical cables because it was suspected that they were stolen.
"Our guarantee is that we only receive old material, but if it's electrical cables we don't buy them because many are stolen and we don't accept them," he said, lamenting the shutdown of the business, which has penalised the livelihoods of 22 breadwinners.
Ferrous material is the great preference of the perpetrators who vandalise public property, as reported by the police authorities, to remove manhole covers and railings - which are in short supply throughout the city - electrical cables, fibre cables, light bulbs, high voltage posts and transformer stations.
The new legislation on vandalism, which provides for stiffer penalties, is viewed with concern by opposition parties and civil society organisations, who suspect hidden intentions to limit demonstrations and protests by penalising the organisers.
DYAS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
