SARS cracks down on Eskom coal syndicates

The South African Revenue Service and other government agencies said they disrupted a coal smuggling syndicate operating across five of the country’s nine provinces.

The search-and-seizure operation targeted former employees of state power utility Eskom “who facilitated procurement fraud,” the agencies said in a statement on Thursday.

High-grade coal being trucked to Eskom power plants is diverted to private coal yards where it is replaced with lower-quality coal, the agencies said, adding the high-grade coal is then exported.

The suspects defrauded the tax collector of more than R500 million, they said.