By far the bulk of the R11.5 million worth of contraband seized on South Africa’s land borders by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in November came from a tip-off to 15 SA Infantry (SAI) Battalion soldiers tasked with vehicle inspections at the Lebombo port of entry.
The tip-off reportedly given to “military police officials” of the Mthatha-based infantry battalion saw soldiers alert Lebombo customs officials to an apparently abandoned and loaded truck at a nearby fuel stop on the N4. The loaded truck/trailer was taken to the SA Revenue Service (SARS) Lebombo where more than 6 700 pairs of sneakers as well as 340 pairs of Diesel branded and 216 branded pairs of G-Star jeans were found. The trainers were branded Adidas, Jordan, Lacoste, New Balance, Nike, Reebok and Vans.
All told the clothing and footwear was valued at R8 427 600. In addition to the big Lebombo haul soldiers also relieved smugglers of unspecified contraband worth R1.69 million on the Mpumalanga/Mozambique border in November.
The trade in counterfeit goods is a major issue for South Africa’s law enforcement agencies, which recently recorded other successes. At the end of October 2025, the Hawks seized R59 million worth of counterfeit Nike, Versace, and Gucci products during a raid on a freight container depot in Durban. Weeks earlier, authorities seized R260 million worth of illicit goods from over 100 shops in the North West province – police seized over 86 000 counterfeit items from stores in Coligny, Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Mahikeng, Potchefstroom, Rustenburg, Ventersdorp, and Zeerust.
In revealing its Operation Shanela II and Safer Festive Season Operation statistics over the last week, the SAPS said in the Western Cape, they uncovered an illicit alcohol manufacturing plant in Lansdowne and arrested two suspects aged between 26 and 39 years old. They were arrested for the illegal manufacturing and distributing liquor. Seizures included manufacturing equipment, an assortment of alcohol branding stickers, and unknown liquids.
The illicit alcohol industry has grown from R6.4 billion in value in 2017 to R16.5 billion in 2024. It has become so prevalent that roughly one in five bottles of alcohol is illicit. These are mostly either counterfeit or smuggled into South Africa.
Also in the Western Cape last week, members of the Provincial Organised Crime Investigation Narcotics Unit intercepted a truck on the N12 en route from Johannesburg to George carrying drugs. A box containing cocaine worth R3.6 million was seized and arrested a 46-year-old suspect for dealing in cocaine.
In Mpumalanga, police acting on intelligence intercepted a truck pulling two trailers with 12 water tanks with 5000-litre capacity packed with cartons of illicit cigarettes. The seized consignment consisted of 25 pallets of illicit cigarettes worth R17.4 million. A 43-year-old foreign national from the Kingdom of Eswatini was arrested after the discovery of illicit cigarettes hidden inside water tanks in Sundra on 5 December 2025.
Also in Mpumalanga, two Zimbabwean foreign nationals were arrested for dealing in dagga. This is after police intercepted a truck on the N2 Road from Empangeni en route to Zimbabwe and discovered six big bags of compressed dagga to the value of R1.2 million on 4 December 2025.
According to statistics from the Joint Operations Division of the SANDF, in November soldiers, from both regular SA Army and Army Reserve units, also stopped drugs worth just over R2 million from coming into South Africa via the country’s borders with Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
An unspecified number of vehicles with a total value of R1.45 million were prevented from illegally exiting South Africa en route to chop shops or for export from Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
That the original reason for the Operation Corona border safeguarding tasking – preventing illegal immigrants – still applies comes with interception of 302 in November, with 239 Zimbabweans the majority of those handed to police and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials. Basotho, Mozambicans, Swazis and Zimbabweans made up the remaining illegal immigrants nabbed by soldiers who were also integral to the detention of 30 suspects sought by police in connection with crimes not specified by the Joint Operations Division.
Livestock – cattle, goats and sheep – found illegally with an attributed value of R872 210 on South African pastureland was impounded. As is normal Basotho pastoralists were the biggest offenders accounting for R622 710 worth of livestock which either wandered across a non-existent or broken border fence or were herded into the Free State province.
