Netherworld of scrap metal theft

It is little wonder that scavengers risk death to steal scrap metal from moving heavy vehicles for what one daring thief estimates to be a daily return of around R150. The short answer is that for many, there is little or no alternative.

In this netherworld of the local “recycling industry” where dustbins are scoured and municipal dumping grounds sifted for anything of value, scrap metal is a multibillion-rand business and it is a uniquely South African irony that theft would play the role exposed in The Citizen.

Estimates of unemployment figures in this country run as high as 40% – well above the official 27%. This is borne out by welfare payments to 17 million South Africans from a tax base of a little over five million.

In an economy teetering on the cliff edge of collapse, and with a shortfall of R30 billion on projections, the numbers of welfare recipients must inevitably escalate, forcing still more of the financially disenfranchised out on the streets looking for something, anything to feed themselves and their families, even if this means potentially lethal scrap metal theft.

Survival is a vital trigger of the human condition and this practice, hazardous as it is, is just that.