Customs seizes goods worth R1.7bn this year

Drugs and endangered species might hog the headlines‚ but most customs busts involve counterfeit goods.

Revealing that goods worth more than R1.7bn had been confiscated in the first half of the year‚ the SA Revenue Service said on Friday that 82% of them (by value) were counterfeit clothes‚ shoes and other goods.

On average‚ there were just over 18 counterfeit goods busts every day‚ compared with fewer than two for narcotics.

The value of confiscations in the first half of 2018 was just 5% higher than in the same period of 2017‚ even though the number of busts more than doubled.

The acting head of Customs and Excise‚ Beyers Theron‚ said there was more his officers could do to make inroads into the illicit economy.

“We need to start looking at trends and patterns and becoming more strategic in the way we are dealing with some of these risks‚” he said.

OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg features strongly in the SARS list of high-profile busts between January and June.

Other busts were: Perlemoen with an estimated value of R2.37m en route from South Africa to Sri Lanka via Dubai‚ seized at Durban harbour on February 21;

1,766‚200 cigarettes seized at Beit Bridge border post on April 17.