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.”