Manufacturers with illegal scrap to be de-registered

By David Muwanga

A MEMBER of the Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) who will be caught purchasing and processing illegally-acquired scrap is to be de-registered.

“We have reached this decision after realising that we, the manufacturers, are always complaining of poor roads, high transport costs, poor energy and water supply, yet we are the ones encouraging vandalism of these properties,” the association’s executive director, Gideon Badagawa, told a press conference at the association’s boardroom in Kampala.

The warning comes amidst complaints from many organisations like the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Rift Valley Railways and UMEME over vandalism of their properties by people who sell the scrap to steel mills.

“However, this is not limited to the three organisations. There are many other institutions and individuals whose billboards are vandalised,” Badagawa said.

“The most recent is Lugazi University whose billboard was removed and taken for sale. Proprietors of kiosks and domestic appliances have not been spared.”

“Manufacturers should be suspicious of people who bring in one item in large quantities. For example, where does one many gates to be sold as scrap? This means it is a racket stealing people gates. This should be reported,” he suggested.

“We are doing this to support the Government’s efforts to curb the crime that is affecting us.”

He said the Government had warned manufacturers who export scrap to neighbouring countries that they would be prosecuted.

Janat Mukwaya, the trade minister, said the Government would conduct a rigorous surveillance exercise to crack down on the illegal exporters of scrap.

“We have been informed that most of the scrap stolen from big companies is exported. But we can’t rule out that even local manufacturers purchase it, so we warn them against the vice.”