Home | News | TWO SWAZIS NABBED WITH OVER E1M EXPIRED DRUGS

TWO SWAZIS NABBED WITH OVER E1M EXPIRED DRUGS

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font
image The front view of Interwaste Environmental Solutions’ licensed hazardous waste treatment facility in Power Street, Germiston where the expired drugs from Swaziland were destined to. (Sourced from the internet).

HARTEBEESKOP – Expired drugs amounting to over E1 million in transit from Swaziland were confiscated by the South African Police Service (SAPS).


Two Swazi men were arrested for transporting the drugs, which were enroute to Germiston in Gauteng. The arrest occurred on Sunday, April 2, 2017. The two are employees of InterWaste and were transporting the hazardous drugs for destruction since they were expired. The two were arrested for violating the South African Medical Act.
The men are Zakhele Alex Mndawe and Duma December Mlimi.


The drugs have been forfeited to the State and are currently being kept at Heertbeeskop Police Station, which is situated a few kilometres from Oshoek Border Gate. During a visit to the police station by reporters, the massive boxes containing the expired drugs were found placed outside, in preparation to be taken by officials from the Ministry of Health in South Africa.
A source said the boxes contained a variety of drugs, and some of them were labelled as Brufen, a well known painkiller. The source of these drugs could not be ascertained as they were being transported by a waste management company. The source disclosed that these drugs will now be destroyed by the State.

The discovery of the massive boxes containing the expired drugs was initially made by South African Revenue Services (sars) officials based at the Oshoek Border Gate.
 It was during a search of the truck that the SARS officials discovered that the consignment being transported was expired medical drugs.  They then handed the consignment over to the SAPS, who subsequently arrested and formally charged the duo for violating the country’s laws governing the transportation of expired drugs.

  
The law of South Africa clearly stipulates that such drugs (expired drugs) must not be transported by road as they are deemed dangerous or hazardous.  The two men appeared before the Eestehoek Magistrates Court in Elukwatini, a day after their arrest, and they were taken back into custody since their matter was postponed to April 7, 2017.  According to Mpumalanga SAPS Acting Spokesperson, Brigadier Gerald Sedibe, the two told the court that they were transporting the drugs for destruction. On April 7, the charges against the men were withdrawn, and instead the manager of the company which had sent them was charged.


“The Manager Jason Guy Davis was fined a sum of E2 000 and the name of the company where the drugs were being transported to is Interwaste,” said Brigadier Sedibe.
Information gathered is that the drugs were to be destroyed at the Germiston Branch of Interwaste.


Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: