14 June 2025 — The South African Revenue Service (SARS) continues to discharge its mandate to collect all revenue due to the fiscus, facilitate legitimate trade, and ensure compliance. This takes place in a difficult economic and operational environment characterised by multiple challenges, including the illicit economy. SARS is working with other law enforcement agencies to combat the scourge of the illicit economy.
The illicit economy is a global phenomenon that threatens South Africa’s society, economy, and national security. Tax evasion, smuggling, illegal transactions, illicit manufacturing, and fraud undermine the rule of law, erode public trust, distort markets, deprive governments of revenue, and enable corruption and organised crime. The pervasiveness of these illicit activities in our country demands that all enforcement agencies work jointly to curb their harmful practices. The illicit economy is complex and requires a whole-of-government response among public entities, the private sector, civil society, and international partners.
Over the past decade, countries along the Maputo Corridor (South Africa, Swaziland, and Mozambique) have become primary targets of the illicit fuel trade, which is driven by organised criminal networks that smuggle and illegally adulterate fuel. SARS has established that some importers declare fuel amounting to 40 000 litres or less, whereas investigation reveals that up to 60 000 litres of fuel are actually imported. This is called under-declaration, and documents are falsified to perpetuate this fraudulent activity. SARS has also detected a national trend where many of the fuel-storage and distribution depots are involved in the adulteration of all fuel products, especially through illegal mixing of diesel with paraffin. Fuel adulteration costs the fiscus approximately R3.6 billion per year according to statistics by the International Trade Administration Commission.
Faced with such carefully planned criminality, government agencies are working together more closely to detect, prevent, and combat fuel adulteration and enforce the Customs and Excise Act. In the past four months, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) has carried out several interventions.
The intelligence-driven joint-enforcement interventions included search-and-seizure operations targeting certain fuel-storage facilities and depots as well as random sampling of tanker transport to test the fuel viscosity and composition. In some cases, adulterated diesel analysed by in these investigations had up to 68% paraffin content.
A joint-intelligence team composed of SARS and SAPS officials identified 23 targets across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal. This team detained:
- 953 515 litres of contaminated diesel fuel.
- Six fuel depots that were in contravention of Sec. 37 of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 as amended.
- Assets and contaminated fuel to the value of R367 274 330, leading to further investigation, and criminal and civil liabilities.
- Two so-called fuel “washrooms”, of which one is a rare mobile “washroom” fitted on a transport truck, used to remove paraffin markers.
- Twelve fuel-transport trucks which were identified after suspected false declaration on importation of an average of 15 000 litres of fuel per tanker.
Moreover, 13 criminal cases were registered with SAPS, supported by SARS’s trade investigators for customs and excise contraventions and fraud.
SARS appreciates the continued operational support received from:
- NATJOINTS
- South African Police Service: Crime Intelligence, Public Order Policing, Digital Forensics, and Detective Services
- State Security Agency
- South African National Defence Force
- Municipal Emergency Services: Fire Department and Municipal Police
- Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment
- Department of Mineral Resources and Energy
- National Prosecuting Authority
- Department of Home Affairs
Edward Kieswetter, SARS Commissioner, expressed his thanks to the SARS and SAPS teams and other Government departments for their untiring effort to detect, combat, and prevent the scourge of the illicit economy. He said that “the criminal syndicates engaged in these brazen acts have become emboldened to act callously with no restraint in pursuit of their rapacious and criminal gains”. Commissioner Kieswetter stressed that state agencies will coordinate closely and work within the law to confront illicit trade. “These syndicates can only underestimate our resolve to eradicate this criminality at their peril. These acts threaten the very foundation of our society. Our message is clear: we will spare no efforts to crush them”.
For further information, please contact [email protected].
