Pallade Veneta - Up in smoke: S.Africa destroys 20 mn smuggled cigarettes

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) said that the contraband of 20 million cigarettes, valued at more than $2.3 million, and smuggled into the country between February and May this year, will be destroyed.

"The destruction of the illicit and smuggled cigarettes (at Beitbridge border post) is likely to last a few days," is said in statement.

The cigarettes were seized over several operations, it said.

"Illicit trade robs the government of much-needed revenue and destroy industries, exacerbating unemployment, poverty and inequality," the revenue authority said.

In January, one of the country's largest tobacco producers, British American Tobacco South Africa (BATSA), said that it had been forced to cut around a third of its workforce since 2020 as result of the "ballooning illicit tobacco trade".

BATSA estimated that "illicit cigarette trade accounts for up to 70 percent of South Africa's total cigarette market".

South Africa's decision to ban tobacco during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 resulted in a booming illicit market of cigarette trade, suggested the manufacturer.

South Africa imposed one of the world's toughest lockdowns in March, including a ban on sales of alcohol and cigarettes.

Elite police unit known as the Hawks last month arrested a driver for smuggling more than 500 cartons of illicit cigarettes, found being transported in a gas tanker truck on its way to the central town of Potchefstroom.

In another burst in a town Bronkhorstspruit, near Pretoria, cigarettes valued at over a million dollars, smuggled through Beitbridge where they were falsely declared as tea leaves, were seized in May.

Beitbridge border crossing between the two countries is one of the busiest on the continent, but also one of the most porous.

I.Saccomanno--PV