In 1956 Die Landstem, a national Afrikaans-language newspaper, acquired the rights to send a delegate to the Miss World pageant in London. In conjunction with The Sunday Times, a national English-language newspaper, the first official Miss South Africa competition was organised to select South Africa's entrant for the Miss World pageant.
PHOTOGRAPH CONTEST
I call it a competition since the selection of the finalists, and ultimately Miss SA, was based on photo's submitted to the newspapers. Each newspaper would publish the photographs of the entries received and the readers would be asked to vote for their favourite contestant.
Once each newspaper had selected it's finalists, the photographs of all the finalists would be published in both newspapers and Miss SA was selected by the readers of both newspapers. No pageant took place and the winners were announced on the same weekend in both newspapers. This system was in place until 1967.
South Africa's representative at Miss World has always qualified via the Miss SA pageant. The selection process changed for 1964 and 1965. Both the finalists and Miss SA were selected by an editorial panel comprising staff members from Die Landstem and The Sunday Times.
The selection process changed once more for the 1966 and 1967 Miss SA competitions. Whilst the finalists were still selected by the sponsoring newspapers, the winners were selected by popular reader vote once again.
LIVE JUDGING
When Die Landstem closed down in the first half of 1968, The Sunday Times took over the organisation of the Miss SA contest. Their media partner for the contest was the Afrikaans-language newspaper, Dagbreek. There was another selection process change in 1968.
Whilst the finalists were still selected from photographic entries received by the two newspapers, Miss SA was selected by a panel of celebrity judges who met with the finalists at a venue in Johannesburg. There was no "live" coronation, and the panel's decision was published in the press a week or two after the judging session.
REGIONAL PAGEANTS
The selection process changed again in 1970. Regional pageants were held and the regional winners appeared before a panel of celebrity judges in Johannesburg. From the regional pageant results it would appear that regional winners were permitted to compete again.
Once again no "live" coronation took place, but the winner and runner-up were "crowned" at a cocktail party in Johannesburg following the announcement of the results in the press. In 1971, Rapport was published for the first time, and they joined the annual search for Miss South Africa (I suspect that Rapport was Dagbreek after a name change).
THE FIRST PAGEANT
The first public coronation of Miss SA took place in 1972 when " a crowd of a few hundred people" saw Stephanie Reinecke being crowned at the Johannesburg City Hall. Regional pageants were not held from 1975 to 1993. Entrants would be short-listed from their photo's and then interviewed at centres around South Africa. The list of contestants would be published in the press a week or two before the pageant.
SUNDAY TIMES PAGEANT
In 1982, Rapport withdrew from the pageant to produce their own Miss South Africa pageant.The pageant was not held in 1983. Initial media reports read that the Sunday Times had decided to discontinue the pageant, but this decision was apparently reversed and the pageant date was moved to the first half of 1984.
AND TWO ARE ONE AGAIN
In 1985 the Sunday Times and Rapport joined forces once again to produce a single Miss South Africa pageant. Shortly before the 1993 Miss South Africa pageant final, the Sunday Times and Rapport announced that they were "selling" the pageant. They cited "political interference" as the reason for their decision. Apparently they had been under extreme pressure to crown a "Black" winner.
A NEW ERA
After the 1993 edition, the pageant was "sold" to Doreen Morris, and Sun International. The selection process changed yet again. 9 provincial pageant winners and Miss Soweto competed at the pageant finals. From 1996 to1998 only the 9 provincial winners competed at the final. In 1999, 3 finalists from each province (2 from the Northern Cape) competed at the pageant. 9 provincial winners were named, and they proceeded to the next round of competition.
SUN INTERNATIONAL
In 2000 Sun International took sole ownership of the pageant. Nationwide castings have been held ever since to select the contestants.