How envoys in South Africa enrich themselves with tax-free liquor.
Everyone knows the plight of diplomats. They are usually deployed a long way from their homeland and have to reside in huge, prestigious villas, the operation and cleaning of which requires entire armies of service personnel. At airports, they have to show their ugly blue passports at separate controls, in front of which they cannot even start a relaxed conversation with a passenger, because they are usually alone there anyway and there is no queue at their counter that forces them to wait .
If you are traveling in your own vehicle, then you are stigmatized with a somehow strange-looking license plate – and are not allowed to make your contribution to the welfare of your host country even if you exceed the applicable speed limit by more than 100 percent. Even if they wanted to – they don’t come into contact with any ordinary police officer, judge or tax advisor: they are all avoided by everyone.
Apparently some – especially from poorer countries – do not get along with their tax-free salary and see themselves forced to additional income from outside their profession. Like the diplomats from several African countries who upgrade their thankless job in South Africa’s capital Pretoria by selling tax-free alcohol.
The state is losing millions
According to the local tax authority, envoys from Ghana, Rwanda, Burundi, Guinea and Malawi in particular buy huge amounts of alcohol every month in the diplomatic duty-free shops in their district – only to then sell them on with a small profit margin. The treasury is said to lose an amount equivalent to the equivalent of six million euros per month – it has not yet been determined whether diplomats from more distant countries are also involved in the shovel.
Apparently, some diplomats spend up to 300,000 euros a month on alcoholic beverages or tobacco products: The tax office is even aware of two cases of envoys who are said to have stocked up on goods worth 600,000 euros in the four tax-free shopping havens within a month. Actually, the service of the South African government is only intended for the consumption of cognac and cigars in the embassies themselves, the tax investigators point out: Everything else is tax evasion.
Nevertheless, there have been no arrests so far – and there will not be. It is well known that diplomats enjoy immunity and are not allowed to appear before any judge in their area of service. And even if they did, they could pull themselves out of the affair with a convincing argument. After all, one of the oldest principles of diplomacy is: “When you are in Rome, behave like the Romans.” Anyone who does not do dirty business in South Africa has not yet arrived in the host country.
