Fake alcohol floods shelves as danger rises

The Citizen

05-06-2025

Cheap fake alcohol is luring buyers and flooding shops. It's deadly, illegal, and costing South Africa R16.5 billion in lost excise taxes.
Crime is enough to turn anyone to drink… but even trying to drown your sorrows you won't be safe, because 18% of the booze in South Africa is counterfeit.
And, you're not just going to find it in holein-the-wall shebeens or backstreet taverns – some of it is also seeping into mainstream liquor outlets, according to researchers Euromonitor International, in partnership with the Drinks Federation SA.
They revealed that the fake alcohol trade is worth more than R25 billion a year.
The main victims are established brands, whose labelling is copied and placed on to containers of counterfeit drinks.
The scale of the crime means the SA Revenue Service loses out on R16.5 billion in excise duty.
ALSO READ: How you could be drinking counterfeit alcohol without knowing
They say the bootleg business has increased 55% over the past seven years while the loss to the government has increased by 157%.
One of the main attractions of the ersatz hooch is that it can be between 37% and 70% cheaper.
South Africans hunt bargains like that all the time – but there are dangers.
Not only could the hangover be greater from booze without quality control, but it might kill you.