FAKE PRODUCTS HIT ESWATINI

SITEKI – If you recently purchased an Okapi knife, sanitary pads and Kiwi shoe polish from shops in Siteki, please re-check the authenticity of the brand.
The goods you bought may be counterfeit.

This is because a joint operation by the police Fraud Department and officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade found that Eswatini was now a dumpsite for fake products.

The joint operation, which, according to sources will be extended to other towns, busted five local shops that were selling counterfeit goods.
Some of the shops are located right within Siteki town centre while others are in the outskirts of the town.

Implicated

All the implicated shops are owned by businessmen of Asian origin.
The names of the shops are known to this publication but they will not be revealed for now since investigations in the matter are still ongoing, and the shop owners have not been formally charged.

Some of the counterfeit goods that were discovered in the shops included: Gold Star yeast, diapers, Okapi pocket knives, Kiwi shoe polish and Always maxi sanitary pads.

Officials from the Commerce department have since removed the counterfeit goods from the shelves.
Furthermore, the shop owners were reportedly warned not to re-stock the counterfeit goods, pending the conclusion of investigations. The total value of all the removed goods believed to be counterfeit could not be immediately ascertained.

Yesterday morning, police made an application in court to impound the counterfeit goods, pending the conclusion of investigations.
In separate applications/affidavits filed before Lubombo Principal Magistrate Dumisani Magagula, investigating officers informed the court that they conducted a search in the shops after obtaining a search warrant on April 23, this year.

In his affidavit, one of the investigating officers, Detective Sergeant Steven Mlambo, informed court that they searched the premises of the shops ‘on suspicion that there is a contravention of Section 3(2) (a) of The Merchandise Act 24 of 1937’.

“For purposes of further investigation to determine the source of the counterfeit products, I humbly request the honourable court to detain the said exhibits which were seized on the strength of the search warrant, in terms of Section 52(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act No: 67/1938,” submitted sergeant Mlambo.

A similar application was made by Detective constable Dumsani Mkhonta against one of the shops.
“During the search, 11 Okapi pocket knives, which were sold by the respondent, (were) found to have been counterfeit in contravention of the Merchandise Act 24 of 1937 and were seized into police custody,” submitted detective Mkhonta.

In the applications filed by police investigators, the names of the five shop owners were mentioned but they have been deliberately withheld since no formal charges have been preferred against them.

Submissions

After perusing the affidavits and listening to verbal submissions by the applicants, the magistrate ordered that all the counterfeit goods be kept in police custody pending the conclusion of investigations.

This reporter visited some of the shops that are allegedly selling counterfeit goods and everything seemed normal.
There were no empty shelves and, according to some staff members, other items were shifted to the shelves which had been left vacant, following the seizure of the fake goods by the police.

Dr Vusi Magagula, the Director of Health Services in the Ministry of Health, did not answer his mobile phone when called yesterday evening.
In May last year, this publication reported that fake sanitary pads had hit the market, including shops in Eswatini. It was reported that The Citizen news, a South African publication, had reported that police in that country had cracked down on the syndicate that was manufacturing the illegal sanitary towels.

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