Belhar Officer Joins Unlikely Squad: South Africa's Springbok Lookalikes

Antonio Munnik, a law enforcement officer from Belhar, did not expect to end up in a team photograph alongside 22 other South Africans. But that is exactly what happened when he was selected as a Springbok lookalike, joining an official squad of ordinary people who bear striking resemblances to members of the national rugby team. None of them play professional rugby. All of them now share something more immediate with their doppelgangers: a place in a campaign that has turned a playful search for uncanny likenesses into a genuine expression of how rugby binds South African communities together.

The Same Same But Klippies #BokSearch campaign, run by Klipdrift, began with a simple premise. Find South Africans who could pass for Springbok players. What emerged was far more than a marketing exercise. It became a window into how ordinary people experience and participate in the country’s rugby culture.

Zwelethu Maziya, a real estate agent based in Durban, spent years listening to friends joke about his resemblance to Springbok player Aphelele Fassi. The repeated encouragement to enter the #BokSearch scanner finally convinced him to try. For Anthony Smit, a construction worker from Paarl, the resemblance to Eben Etzebeth has grown so convincing that strangers approach him in public. One woman in a biltong shop was so certain she had spotted the Springbok lock that she fell off her chair when Smit walked in. After realising her mistake, the situation somehow ended with another fall.

Yet for Smit, the resemblance itself mattered less than what came next. “Meeting the other doubles was amazing,” he says. “It felt like being part of a provincial rugby team, everyone was ready to play.” That sense of belonging, of being part of something larger than individual recognition, captures what the campaign has genuinely achieved. The 23 people selected for the official squad come from different backgrounds, different professions, and different parts of the country. Their common thread is thin: they look like rugby players, and they embraced the opportunity to participate.

Rugby in South Africa does not stay confined to stadiums or television screens. It shapes conversations at braais, in workplaces, on social media, and in the debates that unfold long before kick-off. Donné Wolk, marketing head of Spirits, frames the strategy plainly: “Rugby has a way of bringing South Africans together, whether it’s around a screen, at the stadium, at a braai or through the friendly debates that start long before kick-off. With #BokSearch, we wanted to celebrate that connection in a way that felt distinctly South African.”

Meanwhile, the campaign has expanded its reach beyond the men’s national team. Klipdrift has loaded the Springbok Women and Springbok Sevens teams onto its Same Same scanner, broadening the opportunity for consumers to search for their own lookalikes across the wider Springbok family. This expansion reflects both a marketing calculation and a genuine widening of who gets to participate in the experience.

The search remains open. South Africans aged 18 and older can enter #BokSearch until the end of September 2026, with winners standing a chance of receiving a framed Springbok jersey or securing a place as an official Same Same But Klippies squad member. More information is available at https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/south-africa-has-a-second-springbok-squad-and-theyre-not-who-you-think-964994a.

What the campaign ultimately demonstrates is how a brand can take an established sporting association and transform it into something participatory. The audience does not simply support the team. They get the chance to become part of their own version of it. With the bench still open, the question is which ordinary South African, perhaps someone who has spent years deflecting jokes about their face, walks through the scanner next.