Department of Health

Currently, financial disclosure forms do not require disclosure of potential conflicts of interest in family members such as involvement with medical supplies in the Department of Health, posing direct conflict risks.

“if we are not aware of your wife or husband's financial interests in, for example, let us say, medical supplies and you work in the Department of Health, that can potentially pose a very direct conflict of interest and in the current regime, that is not something that we would be directly able to consider because we do not require that kind of disclosure to be made in the disclosure form”

A June 2021 seizure involved a container classified as bone meal, which is a waste animal product detained automatically by Veterinary Services of the Department of Health.

“This relates to the June 2021 seizure... When the vessel arrives offshore, it submits a notice to discharge to the Port Authority... The person that packed this would have given it a classification and a commodity code... I see it is bone meal. It is an animal product. It is a waste product. There is a system in place that flags these items automatically. And what it does is it automatically places a detention on that consignment... The detention notice here is the Department of Health, Veterinary Services.”

Veterinary Services and Department of Health do not have their own bonded warehouse; inspections happen at the location chosen by the shipper.

“Veterinary Services and Department of Health do not have their own bonded warehouse and whatever. Where would these get inspected? The yard that the shipper has chosen?”

Bone meal as a foreign food product must be inspected and cleared by the Department of Health, not by SARS.

“It is actually the Department of Health, not SARS.”

Bone meal is used in processed food, pet food, and bulked processed food; it's an animal product requiring inspection and clearance by the Department of Health because it is imported foreign food which might not be fit for human consumption.

“It is bone meal. Funny enough, half of the people eat it anyway. It is used in making processed food, for bulking processed food, pet food, stuff like that. It is sad, but it is. Unscrupulous people do put it in. So it is dumped here as waste, but it carries duty. But because it is a food product and an animal product, the Department of Health must clear it.”

The inspection and clearance of bone meal containers by the Department of Health happens at the container opening location, depot, or respective shipping company location such as CHC, Grindrod, or Maersk.

“As you open the container... If it is at CHC, at CHC. If it is at Grindrod, at Grindrod. If it is at Maersk, it is at Maersk. It is done right there.”

Department of Health does checks at the place where the container is loaded for inspection, not in a special area.

“It will be wherever their container is loaded. ... No, it is where those containers come, they will check it.”

The bone meal in the June 2021 bust was inspected by the Department of Health.

“So that would have, in any event, been inspected by the Department of Health? ... Department of Health, yes.”

The cocaine found in the June 2021 bust would have been seen by the person opening the container as well as supervisors and Department of Health officials, implying they might have detected it.

“they would have presumably found the cocaine amongst that? ... It would have been the poor guy that opened that container from CHC. He would have been the first guy to see it. Then with him would have been the supervisor and the guys from the Department of Health. So the answer is in the end, yes.”