Nearly a ton of tablets being imported into the country by controversial vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath have been seized by the Medicines Control Council from a warehouse at Cape Town International Airport.
The 950kg of tablets - 4872 bottles of 90 tablets each - were confiscated last week by Department of Health investigators as part of an ongoing investigation in Cape Town, where the MCC says Rath could still be operating illegally.
Earlier this week the Treatment Action Campaign, which has fought a years-long battle to halt Rath's activities in the country, announced he had left the country.
The group hailed the department's decision to investigate his activities here.
The German doctor and businessman, who has claimed his vitamins treat everything from diabetes, heart disease and cancer, was selling his products to HIV-positive people in Khayelitsha.
The TAC became involved when it emerged that patients were using Rath's vitamins instead of antiretroviral treatment.
On Thursday Mandisa Hela, MCC registrar, confirmed the haul.
She said the tablets, believed to be Rath's controversial and banned VitaCell, were confiscated at a Swissport warehouse while in transit to Dr Rath Programmes South Africa, in Bree Street in the city centre.
The department had since opened criminal cases against Rath for contravening the Medicines Act.
News of the Rath investigation comes after the recent discovery that the SA National Civic Organisation was running a clinic selling Rath's products in Durban.
On the Cape Town seizure, the TAC's head of policy, communications and research, Rebecca Hodes, said the organisation was "delighted".
"This sends a strong message to the public that the dissemination of unproven and unregulated therapies will not be tolerated by the Department of Health, and that criminal proceedings will be brought against those who violate the Medicines Act.
"It is extremely gratifying to have the department championing the fight against Rath's quackery."