THE Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL) on Tuesday destroyed illicit cigarettes worth an estimated M126 000 that were seized at the country’s borders. The cigarettes, which included Boss, Tamputi, Chief and other brands, were burnt at the Tšoeneng landfill in Rothe. Lebohang Nokana, the RSL manager for Inland Ports Services, said the cigarettes were seized at the Maputsoe and Maseru border gates.
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“The confiscated cigarettes were smuggled by hawkers and they were not declared or even paid the excise duties,” Nokana said.
Nokana said the confiscation of the cigarettes was part of the RSL’s routine checks on compliance of tobacco and tobacco products in Lesotho.
Nokana said many traders were deliberately ignoring the law on cigarette imports.
Thabang Loko, the Internal Communications and CSI Coordinator, said “illegal drugs are tearing families apart and destroying our communities”.
“Therefore, we plead with all traders and individuals to cease from importing illicit goods into Lesotho,” Loko said.
“These illicit cigarettes usually compete in the market with cigarettes that have been declared and paid duties upon importation into Lesotho,” he said.
“For the cigarettes to be demonstrated as declared there should be a mark on every pack of a cartoon of cigarettes. We plead with the traders to abide by the law and pay excise duty on their products.”
Loko said this should serve as a lesson to all Basotho that any products that enter illegally into the country will soon be found and the law will take its course for such traders.
“Illegal products are not allowed in the country,” he said.
The seizure of the cigarettes happens just three months after the arrest and conviction of a man of Indian descent in South Africa for trying to smuggle stashes of illegal cigarettes in Lesotho.
Mahmad Asif Ahmed Shaikh, 41, was found guilty of contravening the Customs and Exercise Act 91 of 1964 by the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court.
Shaik was nabbed on April 27 by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) as he tried to cross into Lesotho with illegal cigarettes worth M1.6 million.
He was sentenced to five years in jail or pay a fine of M150 000, of which three years or a fine of M75 000 were suspended.
Authorities in South Africa have established that South Africa is the hub for illegal cigarettes that are produced en masse for export to neighbouring countries.
On March 26, the University of Cape Town academics, Professor Cornevan Walbeek and Dr Nicole Vellios, published a research paper that showed that South Africa had lost an estimated M100 billion to illegal cigarettes since 2010.
Khahliso ’Molaoa
