Cap lifted on illegal booze

2003-10-21 15:46

Johannesburg - The South African Revenue Service and police raided several illegal liquor production plants across Gauteng on Tuesday, a SARS spokesperson said.

Sechaba Nkosi said the plants were at various locations in Kempton Park, Crown Mines and at Roodepoort.

The raids followed an investigation which showed that raw alcohol was being imported and turned into bottled spirits.

The SARS interest stemmed from the fact that the raw alcohol was imported from Asia and marked as in transit for export to an unnamed country outside South Africa so that no duty was payable. However the alcohol stayed in South Africa and so escaped duties of hundreds of thousands of rands, Nkosi said. p>"But each raid leads us on to another. It may well be that the raids will continue beyond Gauteng and even countrywide."

Nkosi said the raids followed a two-month-long investigation which showed that raw alcohol was being imported and turned into bottled spirits and being sold under labels such as "Smirnoff Vodka."

"Cheap brandy labelled as 'VO Bertrams' and spirits bearing labels such as 'Odessa', 'Palm Beach' and 'Overberg' were also being made and marketed illegally," Nkosi said.

"At one plant we found 72 pallets with bottles being made ready for use," he said.

Bottle tops were imported from India and the bottles were labelled correctly before being sent to outlets.

It was not yet clear how much liquor had been sold nor to which outlets but this would be a police matter, Nkosi said.

"There is a great danger that the raw alcohol content could inflict serious physical damage, even death," Nkosi said, "especially since there appears to have been no recognised quality control on the product."

Police were investigating charges of illegal manufacture and distribution of liquor and evasion of excise and customs dues but so far no arrests had been made, Nkosi said.

- SAPA