FORDSBURG – Illegally imported cell phones and accessories worth more than R17 million was seized during a takedown operation conducted this week in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.
The confiscated devices, mainly Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones and cell phone accessories, was found along with two-way radios and IMEI and ICASA labels at a shop in a Fordsburg mall.
The takedown operation followed intelligence received about the shop storing and selling illegally imported electronic devices, on which a multidisciplinary team acted, SAPS said in a statement.
The operation comprised members from the SAPS Commercial Crime Investigation Unit, Border Policing, the Johannesburg Local Criminal Record Centre (LCRC), the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), and private security personnel.
More than a thousand non-type approved devices and related items were confiscated for being in contravention of the Customs and Excise Act and the Electronic Communications Act.
A non-type approved cell phone is any device that has not been certified by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).
According to Section 35 of the Electronic Communications Act: “No person may use, supply, sell, offer for sale, lease, or hire any type of electronic communications equipment or electronic communications facility, including radio apparatus, used or to be used in connection with the provision of electronic communications, unless such equipment, electronic communications facility or radio apparatus has been approved by the Authority.”
All confiscated items have been transported to ICASA’s storage facility for safekeeping and further analysis, while investigation remains ongoing.
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