Mystery surrounds Snipes's SA passport

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By Poloko Tau Hollywood star Wesley Snipes was curiously using a South African passport when he tried to leave South Africa on June 1. According to documents in newspaper's possession, Snipes was held and questioned at Johannesburg International Airport, resulting in his missing an Air France flight to Switzerland, before he was allowed to board a Kenya Airways flight later that night to Geneva. Snipes had apparently been on holiday in South Africa. The South African passport bears Snipes's South African ID number, his full name and his photograph. But the ID number on the passport is false, according to both the Home Affairs Department and Independent Electoral Commission websites. The actor's place of birth in the South African passport is given as the US.

At the time of the incident, Home Affairs spokesperson Leslie Mashokwe said the actor had been allowed to proceed past immigration at the airport after being "interviewed".

Mashokwe said Snipes had only been interviewed and "never arrested or held, as it is alleged".

On Thursday night he expressed surprise that Snipes had been attempting to leave the country on a South African passport.

A newspaper has provided him with copies of the documents in its possession, and Mashokwe was due to comment on them on Friday.

Snipes's South African passport shows he entered SA on May 23, leaving for Mozambique the next day via Lanseria Airport and returning to SA with the same passport on May 26, having flown into Durban.

Attempts to contact Snipes for comment were unsuccessful.