The really nice thing about social networking tools like FaceBook and Twitter is that one no longer needs "contacts in the industry" to obtain info about the Miss SA pageant. The "attention whores" who enter are also "bleaters".The Johannesburg interviews were conducted yesterday and there were indeed a couple of eyebrow-raising elements. For one, there were only about 60 girls that arrived for the interview. They were required to be at the interview centre by 8:30am and their documentation was prepared and processed alphabetically.
Secondly, despite all the rumours, there was no Raelene Rorke, Precious Makgaretse, Taryn du Plooy, Matapa Maila and, sadly, Rosette Mogomotsi. Could they possibly show up in either Cape Town or Durban a la Rorke in 2007 who was interviewed in Bloemfontein? Something that was mentioned is that there were a lot of "generic looking Afrikaans pageant chicks".
Thirdly, there appeared to be some entrants from remote centres like Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. The fact that there are so few entrants from those centres (despite a reasonable showing of girls from those centres over the years) that did not justify sending the judges to those centres tells me that the judges are once again looking for a more sophisticated "big city girl".
Someone should advise the judges that beauty above all else should be the determining factor when selecting a Miss SA. Sophistication, world-wise, striking, imposing, magnetic are only going to allow Miss SA to sneak into the semi-finals at Miss Universe, and really not get her any further. I'm not particularly interested in a potential Miss World since that pageant winner has become nothing more than a Miss World Charity Queen poster girl.
Whilst the general feeling is that a black Miss SA is waiting in the wings to take her place on the Miss SA throne, I sincerely hope that we are not in for another Gypsy Dream Girl impersonator (the look that is the Miss SA Organisations racial cop-out of choice it seems) to take the title yet again.