Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police, in coordination with the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, has seized a large amount of stolen electrical material from a scrap merchant’s yard, in Nicoadala district, in the central province of Zambezia.
According to an EDM statement, cited in Friday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”, the stolen material included rolls of cable and angle brackets from metallic pylons.
The material was in a scrap metal yard called “Heng Ye”, and owned by Chinese citizens. It was melted down and used to make ladders, porches and other material, either for Heng Ye’s own use or for sale.
Personnel manager Alves Sebastiao confirmed this, He said he was the man in charge of communication between the Chinese owners of the company and the Mozambican work force.
The police arrested five people – the three Chinese owners of the scrap yard, and two Mozambicans. They also confiscated all the stolen material which will be returned to EDM.
EDM has suffered sabotage all over the country, as thieves steal cables, angle brackets and other metallic items. In Nicoadala district, where the Heng Ye scrap yard is located, ten pylons on a high voltage transmission line were recently sabotaged, and thieves made off with over 100 angle brackets. This theft cost EDM 700,000 meticais (about 11,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates).
The seizures are part of a “Community Involvement Programme” launched by EDM in order to persuade local communities and their leaders to contribute to the fight against the theft and destruction of electrical materials.
It has been known for decades that scrap merchants buy metallic equipment stolen, not only from EDM, but also from the railways, and from the telecommunications company, TDM. Yet little has been done to crack down on the scrap metal trade.
