Red tape keeps gifts from poor
SA woman’s festive gesture waylaid by customs rules
● A bureaucratic nightmare and 5kg are preventing a northern KwaZulu-Natal school for the deaf from receiving an international donation of much-needed clothes and toys from Switzerland.
Every year SA-born Claire Dench, who is now a Swiss resident, brings home with her 30kg of clothes and toys to donate to schools and charities in northern KwaZulu-Natal. However, a dream this year to go big backfired as the consignment sits in a customs warehouse, incurring daily storage costs.
“I visit every year and bring as many second-hand clothes as possible to give to needy people. They are sent to Tugela Ferry, where they are given to families being raised by siblings or grandmothers,” said Dench.
This year Dench, who works for a pharmaceutical company, increased the haul to 105kg with the generous help of her coworkers and paid the airline’s cargo agent R8,500 to have the consignment in SA when she arrived for her two-week holiday in Durban on November 8.
However, since arriving and even since returning home, she has spent nearly a month trying to get the clothes and toys released from customs to the organisation.
In an e-mail seen by the Sunday Times, a clearing agent, a company that processes all documents going to customs, told Dench it could not assist her and release the cargo “due to customs rules and regulations”, and that she needed to apply for an import permit, which would cost about R9,000.
However, according to the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), an import permit is free, for those who qualify, but they no longer issue such permits for donated clothing and food.
“Itac does not issue rebate and import permits for donated clothing. There was a dispensation to make donated clothing available to nonprofit organisations which was agreed to between the South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner and the directors-general of trade and industry and the Treasury for the period of March 1 2015 to February 28 2018. This period has unfortunately not been extended,” said Itac spokesperson Thalukanyo Nangammbi.
Nangammbi added that the importation of second-hand goods was only allowed in the event of no similar or substitute goods being available locally. This is done in the interest of the economy where donated goods were sometimes sold for commercial gain.
The quantity of the consignment also seemed to complicate matters as it was too large to be classified as personal items.
An e-mail between the clearing agent
Dench had approached and a Sars employee, which the Sunday Times has seen, explained that personal items weighing less than 100kg could have been cleared duty-free.
“Personal-use items are cleared at our office ... with no duties applicable,” the e-mail reads.
Dench said her intention to do good had been thwarted by bureaucracy, admitting, however, that she had not researched what was needed to clear the consignment before she arrived in SA. She said she hadn’t been advised by the airline’s cargo officials that she would need any import licence.
“Instead of having a holiday in SA with my family and bringing joy to needy people just before Christmas, I spent a good part of my trip trying to solve this problem, getting totally frustrated and upset in the process.”
She said she didn’t want the items to be written off or destroyed because she wouldn’t know what to tell her colleagues.
Sars said it was aware of the matter and was attempting to assist Dench.
Caitlin Wakefield, marketing officer for the KwaThintwa School for the Deaf — one of the organisations set to benefit from the donation — said it had tried to assist to no avail.
Wakefield said all donations received were vital for the school as many of its pupils live on government welfare.
“People like Claire being able to donate and being interested in our learners is important. Without these types of donations we don’t have the funds for resources,” said Wakefield.