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KwaZulu-Natal police and Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi are seen inside a warehouse in Durban where counterfeit goods and expired food items were discovered during a raid on 20 November 2024.
KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi says an investigation has been launched to establish which country the imported expired food discovered at a warehouse in Durban is coming from and where it was to be dispatched.
Mkhwanazi and Premier Thami Ntuli yesterday evening led a team that discovered at least two warehouses in the south of Durban near Bluff storing expired food items, counterfeit alcohol and prescription medication.
In the second warehouse in the area, police also found other counterfeit goods.
Mkhwanazi says a thorough probe will assist them in obtaining all the information.
“It’s part of an investigation about the goods coming into this country and where they will eventually be. At least we have an idea but what we have to investigate further, we need brand owners to give us statements that these goods indeed are not theirs so that it becomes part of the case docket. So, we need to know who’s bringing it in – where do they send it to; and who they sell it to and the eventual final destination.”
#sapsKZN During the operation police also discovered another two warehouses which were storing counterfeit big-brand clothing items worth millions of rand. Investigations are underway to locate the people responsible for the sale of expired food which is mostly sold at the… pic.twitter.com/sIjsx68kzZ
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) November 20, 2024
Collaboration with the police
Ntuli says since the start of the Provincial Council Against Crime initiative, whistleblowers are more willing to work with law enforcement agencies to report warehouses that are used to store expired food.
The Premier says communities in the province are encouraged to get more involved and work with the police.
“I’m in a very big warehouse that keeps goods from the ports where an informer has told us of the substances that are poisonous killing children which are being used here…a lot of the goods are expired but (are) meant to be transported to all over our province and to Southern Africa. So, people are now bold to report. People are now bold – even the workers, you won’t believe that I will receive SMSs or calls from ordinary employees telling (me) that in a factory where 95% of workers are foreigners and there are very few South Africans.”
