Cape Town – The Customs Division of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has started destroying illicit and smuggled cigarettes worth R43 million at the Beitbridge border post.
The cigarettes, totaling 20 million individual units, were seized in operations led by the Customs division’s National Rapid Response Team.
The efforts involved multiple agencies, including the South African National Defence Force, the South African Police Service, the Hawks unit, and the Immigration division of the Department of Home Affairs.
In a statement on Monday, SARS Deputy Commissioner, Johnstone Makhubu, said 2 000 master cases (or 20 million) of cigarettes will be destroyed and that destruction of the illicit and smuggled cigarettes is likely to last a few days.
The Customs Division of SARS will destroy a large quantity of illicit cigarettes in Beitbridge today. pic.twitter.com/mtebzGQ8pC
— SA Revenue Service (@sarstax) June 12, 2023
“SARS has a zero tolerance for persons or organisations that are involved in tax crime or illicit trade, and SARS will pursue them relentlessly,” Makhubu said.
In a specific operation earlier this year, 1 211 master boxes of illicit cigarettes valued at R26 million were seized, leading to arrests and the detention of vehicles used for smuggling. SARS emphasized its zero tolerance for tax crime and illicit trade.
Illicit trade, including various products such as vehicles, poultry, clothing, and gold, causes revenue loss and harms industries, exacerbating unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
SARS has established an inter-agency working group to combat illicit trade and has implemented measures such as the Accredited Economic Operator Model to benefit compliant traders and SMART border technology to enhance detection capabilities.
Customs officials noted a shift toward increased cross-border smuggling using “runners” organised by criminal syndicates to exploit the unemployed and the poor for transporting goods, including illicit cigarettes.
Speaking at the destruction of illicit cigarettes currently under way in Beitbridge, Deputy Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu says that, today is a culmination of a number of activities that have taken place that have been coordinated by colleagues across different operations. pic.twitter.com/kRDRLfE1Cp
— SA Revenue Service (@sarstax) June 12, 2023
“Since the inception of its coordinated and focused investigations Customs has been conducting over the past three years in the tobacco and cigarette industry, there has been a noticeable shift to increased cross-border smuggling using ‘runners’. These are not individuals smuggling these cigarettes as an entrepreneurial opportunity but organised criminal syndicates exploiting the unemployed and the poor by employing individuals as runners to carry goods, often for miles, across borders.
“These runners carry at least two master cases of illicit cigarettes on their backs per run, often repeating these trips multiple times. These cigarettes are then loaded into trucks, small goods vehicles, cars and taxis that wait at locations along the border for distribution to their intended destinations on the local market,” said SARS Director of Customs and Excise, Beyers Theron.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
