{"id":652333,"date":"2026-06-06T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=652333"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:04:03","slug":"fake-apple-products-seized-in-south-african-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/652333-fake-apple-products-seized-in-south-african-raid.html","title":{"rendered":"Fake Apple products seized in South African raid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Police Service (SAPS) seized numerous counterfeit goods in Germiston on 1 June 2026, including fake Apple products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAPS released photos of the goods seized by the Gauteng Counterfeit Unit on Facebook, including the packaging of fake AirPods, which closely resembled the original boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On 1 June 2026, in Germiston, Ekurhuleni District, Members inspected six shops and seized various counterfeit and illicit products,” the SAPS said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Items included 372 counterfeit clothing items valued at R98,900, 70 counterfeit cellphone accessories valued at R55,700, 929 counterfeit consumer products valued at R37,890, and illicit pharmaceuticals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAPS said teams found 327 illicit pharmaceutical products that had a combined value of approximately R16,350.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A total of 1,698 items with an estimated value of R208,840 were seized during the Germiston operation,” the SAPS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same post, it highlighted another operation that took place on 3 June 2026 at a storage facility in Langlaagte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the operation, police seized 3,096 boxes of counterfeit Goldstar yeast and two vehicles allegedly used to commit crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These operations form part of ongoing efforts to protect consumers, safeguard legitimate businesses, and remove counterfeit and illicit goods from the market,” the SAPS said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities and the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) have been working to crack down on counterfeit goods in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2024, the CGCSA launched the MyCGCSA\/CS1za<\/em> app, intended to help with the country’s crackdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The app received an update in February 2025, with the CGCSA adding various new features, including the ability for users to report counterfeit goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2025, barcode supplier GS1’s South African executive at the CGCSA, Michelle Padayachee, told MyBroadband the app had not received any reports flagging fake tech products in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The majority of reports received have primarily been related to food and consumables, which aligns closely with the typical focus of our user base,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We continue to monitor all submissions to ensure swift action where necessary in collaboration with the Crime and Risk Division.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa getting flooded with counterfeit goods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Boxes of counterfeit goods seized by SAPS in Gauteng.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Due to poor controls at customs and severe challenges at South Africa’s product standards bodies, the country has been flooded with counterfeit products in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2024, CBI-electric engineering executive Dr Andrew Dickson said South Africa was seeing an influx of counterfeit electrical goods<\/a> from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include knock-off circuit breakers, light switches, and other common electrical items installed in homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Someone will take an existing product and go to somewhere like China and ask them to create a replica,” Dickson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They will take the product and copy it, making it look like yours and then bring it back into the local market.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, he said many of these businesses producing counterfeit goods had already established a presence in the South African market, and their knock-offs were often mistaken for legitimate products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it is also tough to detect shipments of counterfeit goods arriving in South Africa, as it requires specialist knowledge to identify what is legitimate and what isn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They either stop everything, which hurts the legitimate manufacturers, or they don’t stop anything, flooding the market with counterfeit goods,” Dickson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area in which South Africa faces a flood of counterfeit and non-compliant products is wireless devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2024, MyBroadband found that online merchants were selling products with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transceivers without the necessary licences or approvals on platforms like Temu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local sellers on e-commerce marketplace Takealot have recently also complained<\/a> of an alleged surge in Chinese sellers on the platform selling knock-offs of their products, often undercutting them by just R1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Police seize counterfeit goods in Germiston and Langlaagte<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police in Gauteng said the latest operation, which saw officers seize fake AirPods and iPhone cases, formed part of ongoing efforts to crack down on counterfeit goods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":652428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[91855,98339,70692,7195,97795,2776,105757,105758,105759,105760,19238],"class_list":["post-652333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-apple-airpods","tag-apple-iphones","tag-consumer-goods-council-of-south-africa-cgcsa","tag-counterfeit-goods","tag-counterfeit-tech","tag-ekurhuleni","tag-fake-products","tag-germiston","tag-illicit-products","tag-michelle-padayachee","tag-south-african-police-service-saps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652333"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":652561,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652333\/revisions\/652561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}