Crime is crime: stop buying knock-offs
THIS week was a red letter one in South Africa’s war against drugs. Customs officials seized 108kg of the ingredients for ketamine and mandrax disguised as “calcium carbonate”.
On Thursday, border officials at Ficksburg seized 6000kg of dagga. This was brazen smuggling, involving R30million, but minuscule compared to the R2.3billion worth of contraband seized by the SA Revenue Service between April last year and March.
In total, officers seized almost R327m in drugs, almost R30m in cigarettes, R17m in Viagra, almost R45m in rhino horn, over R79m in currency and R1.8bn in counterfeit clothes, footwear and other goods.
On the one hand, it is heart-warming to read of this dedication to serving the people of this country by officials of a government department whose most senior management has been fingered in facilitating state capture for our erstwhile state president and his friends, the Saxonwold tenderpreneurs; on the other, it makes depressing reading.
This is because even though the amount of drugs confiscated is sizeable, we all know it represents only a fraction of the narcotics being run into or through South Africa, as we remain one of the international drug hubs of choice.
It is not enough to intercept the consignments. Our law enforcement agencies have to start arresting the kingpins and ensure this country becomes a true no-go area for drug lords.
The greater disappointment, though, lies with ordinary South Africans. Buying counterfeit goods, whether clothing, perfumes, books, CDs or DVDs, is theft. Every DVD bought, every pair of jeans or knock-off handbag, is money diverted from the rightful creators of that item and the further reinforcement of an underground market, for which there will always be a willing supplier.
We cannot rail against the scourge of drug smuggling – and properly celebrate the victories our watchful customs and other law enforcement officers record – if so many of us still think there is nothing wrong in buying counterfeit goods. Crime is crime.