The South African authorities say they have uncovered a coal-smuggling syndicate that has played a major role in exacerbating the country’s energy crisis.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) led what was described as a search and seizure operation across five provinces where the smugglers are active – Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Limpopo.
The suspects include former employees of the state-owned electricity firm, Eskom.
A statement said the scam involved high-grade coal being sold off and replaced with a low-grade product which has been damaging power stations.
The issue of coal theft has been reported in South Africa’s media for several years. It is widely felt that high-level corruption long prevented any action being taken to stop the scam.