South African police seized 50 million rands worth of pirated Indian and Pakistani movies after a raid on a factory at the back of a shop here.

The raid in the mainly Indian suburb of Fordsburg followed intensified efforts by South African income tax and customs authorities to stem the tide of trade in illegal music and DVDs that has become a scourge here.

The latest Indian titles are openly on sale here, mainly by expatriate Indian and Pakistani street hawkers, sometimes even before their official screen release.

Legal music and video dealers have long been complaining that while customs authorities hold up their imports from India for a few days to check their status, the pirates have a field day in the market, resulting in poor sales of the legal products.

Pirated copies, mostly of quality that matches the legal versions, sell for as little as a fifth of the price of the legal stocks, further creating a market with the public.

Informed sources said most illegal copies entered South Africa through neighbouring Swaziland, where customs authorities have already tightened the noose, although they were reluctant to provide details of arrests and seizures.

But copies are now also manufactured in South Africa, as was the case with the Fordsburg factory.

Police here said nobody had been held during the raid, but that some arrests were imminent.

Last year, an aged South African Indian man found producing huge quantities of pirated DVDs in his garage received a reduced fine after entering into a plea bargain with the state.