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Counterfeit and Illicit Goods Worth Over R369 000 Confiscated

GAUTENG – The South African Police Service (SAPS) in Gauteng continues to intensify operations aimed at combating the trade in counterfeit, contraband and illicit goods across the province.

On Tuesday, 29 September 2026, members of the Gauteng Counterfeit Unit, assisted by brand protectors, conducted an operation in the West Rand District, where nine shops were visited. During the operation, police seized 1 379 items with an estimated value of R60 500-00. The seized goods included counterfeit consumables, textiles, toys and games, cellphone accessories, as well as illicit poison, honey and pharmaceutical products.

On Wednesday, 30 September 2026, a similar operation was conducted in the Sedibeng District, specifically in Vanderbijlpark. Members visited eight shops and seized 2 449 items with an estimated value of R215 100-00. The seized items included counterfeit consumables, toys and games, cellphone accessories and illicit pharmaceutical products.

On Thursday, 1 October 2026, members of the Gauteng Counterfeit Unit, assisted by brand protectors, conducted another operation in Randfontein, within the West Rand District. During the operation, members visited ten shops and seized 2 465 items with an estimated value of R93 710-00. The seized goods included counterfeit consumables, textiles, toys and games, illicit poison, honey and pharmaceutical products.

The three operations resulted in the seizure of a combined total of 6 293 items with an estimated value of R369 310-00.

SAPS Gauteng remains committed to disrupting the distribution and sale of counterfeit, contraband and illicit goods, which undermine legitimate businesses and may pose health and safety risks to consumers.

Members of the public are encouraged to report the sale and distribution of counterfeit, contraband and illicit goods to their nearest police station or by calling the SAPS Crime Stop number on 08600 10111. Information can also be submitted anonymously through the MySAPS App.

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The Randlord Mansions: History

The history of these mansions is also a story of urban warfare and preservation. In the 1960s and 70s, as Johannesburg expanded, many of the original Parktown estates were ruthlessly demolished to make way for the M1 Highway and the massive concrete campus of the Wits University Medical School. The “Parktown War” saw heritage activists fighting the bulldozers to save what remained of the city’s architectural soul. Today, several of the surviving mansions serve as corporate headquarters, schools, or museums, stripped of their private domesticity but preserved as monuments to a gilded age.

Interestingly, these mansions also played a secret role in the city’s political evolution. It was in the drawing rooms of Parktown that the “progressive” mining elite would meet to discuss the future of the country, often finding themselves at odds with the more conservative Boer government. Lady Florence Phillips, in particular, used her influence to found the Johannesburg Art Gallery, insisting that a world-class city needed world-class culture, not just gold bars. Today, walking the “Heritage Trail” through Parktown offers a haunting contrast; you stand in the quiet, manicured gardens of the victors, looking down at the pulsing, crowded city that their gold mines created. It is the ultimate “view from the top,” a reminder that the extreme wealth of Sandton today has its DNA rooted in the stone-and-timber palaces of the 1900s.