SOUTH AFRICA’S ILLICIT COPPER ECONOMY - Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane

linked to another case in the Eastern Cape.105 The Matsetela network used hired vehicles and trucks to In his sentencing, the judge referred to the fact that carry out the thefts and to transport the stolen copper to Matsetela had already been sentenced to 12 years in 2017 Malvern Scrap Metal. [...] The dealer who bought the bars often supplied copper to the construction sector and was one of the suppliers of the very company from which the bars were stolen.115 In April 2022, after a large consignment of stolen copper cables were recovered by police in Soweto, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena summed up the situation with regard to scrap dealers, saying: ‘When you want to kill the snake,. [...] In the case of Kenya, the ban, which was introduced in January 2022 and lifted in May of the same year, was implemented to give the govern- ment time to develop guidelines to regulate the scrap metal trade. [...] At the local station level, police lack the understanding of the issue, different prescripts and legislation.183 In addition, while the police have been involved in a significant number of seizures of stolen copper, figures released by the SAPS show a decrease in seizures in the 2021/22 financial year compared to the previous year. [...] The first phases, some of which have already been imple-mented, include a six-month ban on the export of scrap metal; the introduction of a permit system for the export of semi-finished ferrous and non-ferrous metal products; the introduction of a permit system for the import of furnaces and other machinery capable of transforming metal and disguising the origin of scrap metal; and the establishme.