Mystery surrounds reasons for random customs check

A rumour made its way
around the community
of Durban port users last
week that a ship and its
cargo had been detained by
SA Revenue Service (Sars)
customs.
By the time it reached the
ears of FTW, the vessel had
been named as the MSCoperated
K Pegasus, and
a “huge number” of boxes
were said to be involved.
But that wasn’t quite
the case, according to
Glenn Delve, SA marketing
director for the line.
“Although no reasons
were given, it seemed that
someone in customs had
woken up that morning with
the great idea of conducting
an exercise in box checking
that day,” he told FTW. “So
they decided to do a block of
260 boxes – already cleared
– for this customs check.
“But it was nothing to do
with us or the ship.”
However, Delve was not
happy about the fact that
this would mean a full
unpack/pack exercise in
MSC’s depot involving all
these 260 boxes.
He added that this was
going to cost the cargo
owners a tidy sum, as they
were ultimately responsible
for the cost of this exercise.
Attempts to get a
response from customs
on this issue were
unsuccessful.