NEWS ANALYSIS….
MONEY, POWER, RESPECT REIGN SUPREME IN THE CIGARRATTE TRADE
BY BRIAN MOHAMMED
MBABANE- Infighting, lusty affection for money within the customs department has been cited as the reason for the increasing number of trucks carrying cigarettes from being impounded.
An ongoing investigation by the Swazi News which began at the beginning of the year has led to classified information that the country is rocked by the ever increasing problems related to cigarettes trade and to a lesser extent spirits from Zimbabwe through Mozambique.
These are mostly destined for South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and are reportedly in the past to have been done through colluding with corrupt senior customs officials on the either side of the affected borders.
Apart from the legalities involved in the trade, the increase in the number of trucks loaded with hundreds of boxes of cigarettes impounded has raised eyebrows in the country and it has become evident that some traders are refusing to cooperate with some senior officials who expect illicit business dealings with them and at the end of the day the traders are suffering while at the same time Government losing millions on duties and taxes.
In February when quizzed on the increase in the number of cigarette detention the Customs Department it was revealed that government loses a lot especially when a cigarette container carrying 1 000 master cases which monitory value cost the tax payer E3 million worth of taxes and duties passes through without proper documentation.
“The administration is unable to divulge any information for now whether it has made a breakthrough last year with respect to the smuggling of packed cigarettes to and from Swaziland. This is even more so because this matter is still under investigations by one of our officials who is presently indisposed,” the statement from former commissioner Thembinkosi Mamba once told this publication.
In March at the Siteki Magistrate Court there was a case of a Unitrans truck which was caught suspected to have smuggled a cigarette consignment and this publication has it on authority that some Customs officials and senior members of the magistrate court a few months back went to Mhlumeni border to inspect where the truck was nabbed and did an inspection on the truck, while the case continued.
On the other side of the coin the classified information in the publication’s possession is that cigarettes are classified as high-risk because of high tax they attract hence vulnerability to evasion.
Following the scanty reporting by government to the tax payer on the smuggling of cigarettes into the country, it is impossible to know how much contraband is going through because arrests and interceptions are happening beyond the country’s borders.
Early last month a truck containing cigarettes worth over E4.2 million stock of Remington Gold cigarettes belonging to F1 Imports & Exports destined for bonding at Matsapha Industrial Sites was detained by the Customs Department.
This was done through the help of Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force and as of now is detained at Sitsatsaweni Army Barracks through a Detention Notice signed by the ‘marked for death’ Legal Advisor Sibongile Hlatshwayo.
Though one cannot be in a position to draw conclusions on the matter but it worth noting that the only reason for detaining the truck was only the non-compliance with Bonded warehouse licence conditions which however could not specify on the exact non-compliance.
It is now exactly four weeks the new Customs and Excise Commissioner Thembinkosi Mpanza promised that the cigarettes would be released to F1 Imports & Exports company who evidently have lost thousands of Emalangeni following the detention of the cigarettes but to date non has been ‘heard’ of the release.
Due to the fact that Mpanza is currently reported to be overseas, then the acting commissioner Malamlela Dlamini is reported to be having it tough in having the cigarettes released from the army barracks due to the fact that the soldiers claim that they have orders to release the cigarettes once they receive an order from the Legal Advisor.
Following such the company directors are reported to have launched an appeal with the Ministry of Finance to have their consignment released or alternatively the hired truck.
The matter is currently on the table and it has been gathered that government’s legal team is reluctant to release either the consignment or the truck back to the traders.
Fresh on the smoky side of cigarettes is the latest incident where the Department of Customs legal advisor Sibongile Hlathwayo who has been enjoying a lease of absolute power in the cigarette trade was attacked by four unknown men armed with machetes while driving her vehicle in Sidvwashini.
According to our sister publication Times of Swaziland Sunday edition report such an attack has been fingered to work related to the multi million cigarette trade in the country. Though the Legal Advisor was not harmed during the attack , she has had the privilege of being accorded with a 24-hour police protection service courtesy of members of Royal Swaziland Police Service.
According to the police mouthpiece this is done after judging and the level of threats the officer is battling with on her livelihood. It remains to be seen if any other officer from the department would be accorded with such a protection once they experience such an attack.
Following the attack on Hlathswayo some of the local importers came out in the open to state that Hlatswayo’s attack was due to the strict control in tobacco products importation which the Department of Customs has imposed thus affecting the traders their potential profit.
“She pretends that we are involved in an illegal business yet ours is very legitimate . We have a legal bonded warehouse which carries the number of goods as prescribed by Customs regulation,” one of the traders was quoted by our sister publication.
So serious are allegations of bribery by the local traders such that they have revealed that some of their counterparts were forced to pay bribes to officers for simple things where they [pointed dubious irregularities so that the traders would pay bribes however following the change of heart by the traders has resulted to more and more trucks being detained.
Apart from Hlathswayo , it is reported that an officer from the Department of Customs Inspectorate division has been subjected to an attacked by some people for frustrating the cigarratte import & export in the country.
Due to the fact that the Legal Advisor is not will to divulge details of her attack to the media, we are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the investigations and the future of F1 Imports & Exports cigarettes consignment detained at Sitsatsaweni Army barracks.
MONEY, POWER, RESPECT REIGN SUPREME IN THE CIGARRATTE TRADE
BY BRIAN MOHAMMED
MBABANE- Infighting, lusty affection for money within the customs department has been cited as the reason for the increasing number of trucks carrying cigarettes from being impounded.
An ongoing investigation by the Swazi News which began at the beginning of the year has led to classified information that the country is rocked by the ever increasing problems related to cigarettes trade and to a lesser extent spirits from Zimbabwe through Mozambique.
These are mostly destined for South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo and are reportedly in the past to have been done through colluding with corrupt senior customs officials on the either side of the affected borders.
Apart from the legalities involved in the trade, the increase in the number of trucks loaded with hundreds of boxes of cigarettes impounded has raised eyebrows in the country and it has become evident that some traders are refusing to cooperate with some senior officials who expect illicit business dealings with them and at the end of the day the traders are suffering while at the same time Government losing millions on duties and taxes.
In February when quizzed on the increase in the number of cigarette detention the Customs Department it was revealed that government loses a lot especially when a cigarette container carrying 1 000 master cases which monitory value cost the tax payer E3 million worth of taxes and duties passes through without proper documentation.
“The administration is unable to divulge any information for now whether it has made a breakthrough last year with respect to the smuggling of packed cigarettes to and from Swaziland. This is even more so because this matter is still under investigations by one of our officials who is presently indisposed,” the statement from former commissioner Thembinkosi Mamba once told this publication.
In March at the Siteki Magistrate Court there was a case of a Unitrans truck which was caught suspected to have smuggled a cigarette consignment and this publication has it on authority that some Customs officials and senior members of the magistrate court a few months back went to Mhlumeni border to inspect where the truck was nabbed and did an inspection on the truck, while the case continued.
On the other side of the coin the classified information in the publication’s possession is that cigarettes are classified as high-risk because of high tax they attract hence vulnerability to evasion.
Following the scanty reporting by government to the tax payer on the smuggling of cigarettes into the country, it is impossible to know how much contraband is going through because arrests and interceptions are happening beyond the country’s borders.
Early last month a truck containing cigarettes worth over E4.2 million stock of Remington Gold cigarettes belonging to F1 Imports & Exports destined for bonding at Matsapha Industrial Sites was detained by the Customs Department.
This was done through the help of Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force and as of now is detained at Sitsatsaweni Army Barracks through a Detention Notice signed by the ‘marked for death’ Legal Advisor Sibongile Hlatshwayo.
Though one cannot be in a position to draw conclusions on the matter but it worth noting that the only reason for detaining the truck was only the non-compliance with Bonded warehouse licence conditions which however could not specify on the exact non-compliance.
It is now exactly four weeks the new Customs and Excise Commissioner Thembinkosi Mpanza promised that the cigarettes would be released to F1 Imports & Exports company who evidently have lost thousands of Emalangeni following the detention of the cigarettes but to date non has been ‘heard’ of the release.
Due to the fact that Mpanza is currently reported to be overseas, then the acting commissioner Malamlela Dlamini is reported to be having it tough in having the cigarettes released from the army barracks due to the fact that the soldiers claim that they have orders to release the cigarettes once they receive an order from the Legal Advisor.
Following such the company directors are reported to have launched an appeal with the Ministry of Finance to have their consignment released or alternatively the hired truck.
The matter is currently on the table and it has been gathered that government’s legal team is reluctant to release either the consignment or the truck back to the traders.
Fresh on the smoky side of cigarettes is the latest incident where the Department of Customs legal advisor Sibongile Hlathwayo who has been enjoying a lease of absolute power in the cigarette trade was attacked by four unknown men armed with machetes while driving her vehicle in Sidvwashini.
According to our sister publication Times of Swaziland Sunday edition report such an attack has been fingered to work related to the multi million cigarette trade in the country. Though the Legal Advisor was not harmed during the attack , she has had the privilege of being accorded with a 24-hour police protection service courtesy of members of Royal Swaziland Police Service.
According to the police mouthpiece this is done after judging and the level of threats the officer is battling with on her livelihood. It remains to be seen if any other officer from the department would be accorded with such a protection once they experience such an attack.
Following the attack on Hlathswayo some of the local importers came out in the open to state that Hlatswayo’s attack was due to the strict control in tobacco products importation which the Department of Customs has imposed thus affecting the traders their potential profit.
“She pretends that we are involved in an illegal business yet ours is very legitimate . We have a legal bonded warehouse which carries the number of goods as prescribed by Customs regulation,” one of the traders was quoted by our sister publication.
So serious are allegations of bribery by the local traders such that they have revealed that some of their counterparts were forced to pay bribes to officers for simple things where they [pointed dubious irregularities so that the traders would pay bribes however following the change of heart by the traders has resulted to more and more trucks being detained.
Apart from Hlathswayo , it is reported that an officer from the Department of Customs Inspectorate division has been subjected to an attacked by some people for frustrating the cigarratte import & export in the country.
Due to the fact that the Legal Advisor is not will to divulge details of her attack to the media, we are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the investigations and the future of F1 Imports & Exports cigarettes consignment detained at Sitsatsaweni Army barracks.
No comments:
Post a Comment