Ex-border officials jailed for attempted smuggling

Two former border post officials were sentenced to an effective 15 years in jail for turning a blind eye to an attempt to smuggle tobacco worth $318 000 into SA across the Zimbabwean border. A News24 report says the Musina Regional Court sentenced Nthapeleng Munyai and Tsumbedzo Mashito on Wednesday after they were convicted of fraud, forgery and corruption. According to National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi, the convictions relate to an incident at the Beitbridge Border Post on 14 March 2016. The court heard that the two officials allowed an interlink truck with two trailers loaded with 614 boxes of semi-manufactured tobacco to enter the country. According to Malabi-Dzhangi, the driver used forged clearance documents, which were irregularly processed at the customs control area. But a Road Traffic Management Cooperation officer stopped the truck at the weighbridge after noticing that the registration plates of the truck and trailers did not correspond with the licence discs and wanted to send the truck back to the customs control area for an inspection. Munyai offered a customs official $2 600, which was later increased to $10 600. ‘Mashito ... was also found to have been instrumental in the processing of the truck and its consignment outside the normal and ordinary customs clearance process and procedures and had misrepresented to her employer how the transaction relating to the said truck was dealt with,’ Malabi-Dzhangi said. State Advocate Malope Maponya, who is attached to the Specialised Tax Unit, presented the evidence of a traffic official, junior and senior customs officials, and clearing agent officials and managers.