Millions of cigarettes to become ash in South Africa's war against smuggling

South Africa’s fight against cigarette trafficking took a significant turn on Monday after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government announced that it will start destroying 20 million illicit cigarettes allegedly smuggled into the country through its border with Zimbabwe.

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," it said in a statement.

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The cigarettes were seized over several operations, it said.

"Illicit trade robs the government of much-needed revenue and destroys 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 a result of the "ballooning illicit tobacco trade".

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

South Africa’s illicit cigarette trafficking boom

South Africa banned tobacco at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, following which the country reported a booming illicit market of cigarette trade, according to BATSA.

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

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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 centre of thetown of Potchefstroom.

In May, another burst in a town Bronkhorstspruit, near Pretoria, cigarettes valued at over a million dollars, were smuggled by masqueradingthem as tea leaves.The Beitbridge border crossing between South Africa and Zimbabweis one of the busiest on the continent but is also one of the most porous.

(With inputs from agencies)

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