Transporters challenge impounding of trucks used for smuggling

"It is unfair to impound our trucks if they’re found to contain contraband at the border post as we are not responsible for our drivers’ actions.” This is the lament of many transport operators who have been on the receiving end of customs and police officials’ vigilance. “A driver will often take the chance of supplementing his income by as much as R10 000 on a single trip by smuggling cigarettes into the country,” says an operator who prefers to remain anonymous. “If he is caught we are the ones who suffer most financially when a truck is out of action because it’s impounded during the investigation – why would we take such a chance when we can lose more than we gain?” But Adrian Lackay of SA Revenue Service and spokesperson for the Border Control Coordinating Committee (BCOCC) disagrees. “All anecdotal cases indicate strong and extremely sophisticated illicit smuggling networks in and out of South Africa. Transporters cannot exonerate themselves. Often the drivers will just load the cargo as instructed without even knowing what is inside the boxes. “The smuggling takes up different forms at different border posts. At Beitbridge the biggest problem is cigarettes and other tobacco products. At Lebombo we deal mainly with stolen vehicles. Durban is rife with cigarettes and second-hand vehicles being smuggled into the country and at all of the international airports we have to deal with narcotics and the illicit trade in abalone. In all of these cases the commercial supply chain is used to smuggle goods into and out of South Africa.” The solution, he says, is to improve intelligence and border control capacity. “For instance, Durban now has a scanner which can verify that the goods in a container are legal and match the documentation, but this is a multi-million rand investment. We have to increase our investment in equipment and competent staff if we ever want to eradicate smuggling.”