South African police have raided premises of resellers who have been identified by Microsoft as software pirates.

In a statement, Microsoft says it has been working with the South African Police Service (SAPS) Directorate Priority Crimes Investigations unit: popularly known as ‘The Hawks’.

The software giant goes on to say that in “most recent enforcement actions around 100 counterfeit disks containing Microsoft software were seized along with a number of PCs, which were operating on unlicensed Microsoft software.”

Microsoft says one suspect was arrested on site with others “rounded up”. Subsequently, the suspects are expected to appear in South Africa’s ‘Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for dealing in Counterfeit Goods’.

The suspects face charges that carry a penalty of R5,000 per disc and even six months imprisonment.

“At any given time, we have a number of active cases being investigated by the SAPS or being prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority,” says Marius Haman, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) lead for the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

“This is proof that the wheels of justice do turn and we’ve achieved several notable convictions of late.

“Microsoft is determined to protect our intellectual property as well as our customer and partner ecosystem from the threat and losses associated with software piracy. Our goal is to reduce those incidents in which customers end up buying PCs with unlicensed copies of Microsoft software and create a fair playing field for all partners,” explains Mr Haman.

“Often cybercriminals exploit the vulnerabilities in counterfeit software through malware and spyware, which exposes consumers and businesses alike, to identity theft and/or cyber-attacks,” says Haman.

Compared to other African nations; though, South Africa has a low software piracy rate.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2013 Global Information Technology Report, South Africa ranked 20th out of 144 countries for the lowest software piracy rate levels in the world.

In contrast, Zimbabwe ranked as having the highest software piracy rate in the world in the WEF report.

Figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) say that nine out of ten software products in Zimbabwe are counterfeit.

Earlier this year, Microsoft told ITWeb Africa that it is working with government authorities in Zimbabwe in a bid to reduce the country’s high software piracy rate.

Daniel Kamau, who is the anti-piracy lead for Microsoft West, East, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, told ITWeb Africa regarding the Zimbabwean problem that “the scale of piracy and counterfeiting means that it cannot be addressed by IT companies alone.”