Inside illegal detergent factory in a shack

Pots, wooden spoons, a garden hose, 250-litre barrels, cold drink crates and a two-plate stove. These are some of the items found inside an Ekurhuleni shack where anillegalcleaning products manufacturing has been taking place. Outside the shack, empty containers of cleaning products with logos of well-known brands were strewn, while others were inside huge bags used by recyclers.

The factory in the Snake Park section ofVilla Lizais the second of its kind to be busted in two days by police after the Hawks shut down a similar illegal facility in nearby Windmill Park on Tuesday. The two sites are less than 5km apart, raising concerns about a possible network of counterfeit cleaning product factories operating in the area. Breaking: Another illegal detergent factory uncovered in Villa Liza – just a day after one was bust in Windmill Park by the Hawks.

The two sites are less than 5kmapart.@Sowetan1981pic.twitter.com/hQwSH2Sb49 At the Villa Liza shack, the large 250-litre barrels were allegedly being used to mix products to make, among others, bath foam, dishwashing liquid, fabric softener and household cleaning products. Whatever had been produced to the right consistency would then be put into containers with brand names such as Handy Andy, Domestos, Dettol, and Jik. There were also some products in powder form that are believed to have been used to manufacture cleaning materials, as well as a hosepipe used to supply water to the shack.

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It is alleged that the empty branded containers in the recycling bags were picked up after being thrown away and taken to the shack. There, they are washed and refilled with the cleaning products that had been manufactured at the shack. While it is not yet known where these products ended up, some residents that Sowetan spoke to claimed they had seen “several white men” at the property buying them.

I believe the same people who would arrest him were benefiting somehow and are the ones involved again…” However, they declined to say whether they bought them too. When police pounced yesterday, they found three men manufacturing the products. They arrested two of them, a Mozambican national and a South African. A third man fled the scene.

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