The Top 12 for this year's Miss South Africa pageant has been announced, and it's all black and white. Nothing in between. After two successive "island girls", Miss South Africa 2009 will be "indigenous" or "imported".Whilst most of the favourites have made it through to the final round of competition, there are definitely a few "what where they thinking" finalists. There also does not appear to be a "formula" since in interview there is at least one "brilliant", but there is also at least one "brain dead" in the group.
The physical look ranges from "high fashion model" to "80's pageant patty". As predicted, most of the finalists are around 1,75m tall. Had this been a Venezuelan pageant, at least 10 of the finalists would be booking into Morningside clinic's "boob ward" on Monday morning.
Repeat finalists are Lisa van Zyl and Matapa Maila. Matapa joins an elite group of 3-time Miss SA finalists although it must be mentioned that none of the other 3-timers have gone on to win the title. The only other former contestant to make it third time lucky was Andrea Stelzer, but her first two unsuccessful attempts were in the now discontinued Miss SA (Universe) pageant.
A glaring omission is former Miss SA Teen, Masechaba Dlengezele. Two very adverse news reports in recent times have definitely affected her chances and the retractions in the media have not been taken into account. Bad publicity has hurt her.
In any event, whether your personal choices have made the cut or not, the Top 12 for the Miss South Africa 2009 title are:
Carol Makhathini
Evette Wessels
Joanne Cronje
Karlien Seegers
Lebogang Keagile
Lisa van Zyl
Mahlatse Mkhawana
Matapa Maila
Melody Zulu
Michelle Bruno
Nicole Flint
Taki Simeli
The preliminary judges were Sonia Raciti, Penny Lebyane, Carl Isaacs and JJ Schoeman.