Lubumbashi city council persists with controversial toll on copper transports

摘要

The mayor of Lubumbashi, Guylain Lubaba Buluma, islocked in a tug of war with locally-based freightcompanies that transport copper and cobalt produced inthe area around the city. Things very nearly turned sour.A few weeks ago, the city council announced it would beintroducing a $60 toll per trailer entering Lubumbashi inaccordance with an urban tariffs decree issued inMay 2020. The money collected is to go towardsinfrastructure upgrades and community projects. But thefreight companies, concerned with how much this wouldaffect their balance sheet, are refusing to pay. Theirtrucks make numerous round trips between warehousesand depots based inside the city and mines in thesurrounding region and further afield. Transporters arealready dealing with a price war (AI, 02/11/20) andcrippling customs fees at the Zambian border (AI,08/12/20).