This year’s Top 10 Miss South Africa finalists – one of whom will be crowned Miss South Africa 2020 on October 24, in a glamorous and entertainment-packed pageant screened live on M-Net and Mzansi Magic and streamed for an international audience – have been announced.
The contestants represent six provinces – Gauteng has four (with three from Tshwane and one from Soweto), followed by the Eastern Cape with two, while Kwa-Zulu Natal, Western Cape, Limpopo and North West each has one entrant. They are an impressive group and include two medical doctors working on the Covid frontline; two full-time international models as well as marketing, education and economics graduates and a food scientist.
For the first time in the history of the Miss South Africa pageant, the contestants who make the Top 3 will represent the country at the world’s three most prestigious pageants. Previously, the Miss South Africa Organisation sent a representative to both Miss Universe and Miss World, but will also now be fielding a candidate at Miss Supranational.
The 10 finalists are (in alphabetical order of their first names):
- Aphelele Mbiyo (24) who was born in Mthata and raised in Port Elizabeth but currently lives in Johannesburg, holds a BA in Integrated Marketing Communications.
- Busisiwe Mmotla (27) is from Soweto and is a Senior & FET Phase teacher who graduated from the University of Johannesburg and is currently studying for a diploma in personal training.
- Chantelle Pretorius (24) from Tshwane, Gauteng, a full-time international model who is also finishing her B.Com Business Management degree through Unisa and has a diploma in nutrition.
- Jordan van der Vyver (24) comes from Greenpoint, Cape Town, and is an international model who usually spends half the year working overseas.
- Karishma Ramdev (25) who hails from Chatsworth in KwaZulu Natal, is now based in Joburg working as a medical doctor at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.
- Lebogang Mahlangu (24) from Soshanguve, Gauteng, is a food scientist working in research and development for a large multi-national.
- Melissa Nayimuli (24) is from Butterworth in the Eastern Cape but now lives in Sunninghill, Johannesburg where she works as an account manager for a marketing agency.
- Natasha Joubert (23) who is from Centurion, Tshwane, has a B.Com in Marketing Management and works in PR at a firm of attorneys.
- Shudufhadzo Musida (24) comes from Ha-Masia in Limpopo and has a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pretoria. She is currently doing her BA Honours in International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand.
- Thato Mosehle (25) hails from Klerksdorp in the North West and is a medical doctor currently completing her internship with the aim of becoming an anaesthesiologist.
