For any young lady hoping to wear the Miss SA crown some day, there is a choice to be made before you sign off on that entry form: You need to decide whether you want to wear the crown on your head or your heart on your sleeve. You can't have both.Back in 1987 , Rapport and Sunday Times, the erstwhile organisers of the Miss SA pageant, decided that all entrants in the pageant may not be engaged to be married at the time of entering the pageant. In fact, they discouraged any public display of affection between a potential contestant (and ultimately, the winner) and the man in her life.
This not only covered physical contact, but also any media reporting of romance between a contestant and her significant other. The organisers were of the opinion that the title was a full-time job that required the winner to devote all her time and attention to her duties and responsibilities, and any romantic involvement would only be a distraction.
The new rule was not met with approval, and even Anneline Kriel is on record as having opposed the rule in the media. She said that the Miss SA title, whilst opening many doors and presenting the winner with a host of opportunities, was a very lonely experience, and that the winner needed some sort of distraction to keep her interest in her job alive.
As I reported in an earlier post, the Miss SA title in the early days of the pageant merely entailed a countrywide promotional tour upon being crowned, followed by participation at the Miss World pageant. In one instance, a Miss SA (Joan Carter in 1966) even got married before her successor was crowned.
The role of Miss SA changed in the 70's and the winner was required to represent the organisers and sponsors on a more regular basis upon her return from the Miss World pageant. Any public romantic involvement was frowned upon, and even pre-nuptual engagements were discouraged.
The first Miss SA to come under fire for her romantic involvement was Yolanda Kloppers in 1978. Granted, she ended up marrying her boyfriend, but the organisers did not take kindly to the negative news reports that made news headlines (the details slip my mind at this point) whilst she was wearing the crown.
In 1979, the "gemeenskap" was in "beroerte" mode when it was discovered that the new Miss SA, Karen Sickel, was living with her boyfriend. Back then only "bad girls" did that and there was even a rumour that she would be dethroned.
The issue came to a head in 1987 when Sandy McCormack announced her engagement to millionaire, Richard Barkhuizen with 3 months of her reign left. She was called into the Miss SA offices and presented with an ultimatum: Break off the engagement or surrender the crown.
Needless to say, she broke off (?) the engagement, but continued wearing her engagement ring in public which was then referred to as a "friendship" ring. She kept her title, and she ended up marrying her fiancee soon after handing over the Miss SA crown to her successor.
In recent times, a Miss SA winner with the potential to place at both the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants failed to make the grade at either pageant because she simply lost interest in the title as she had met a "love interest". She did not want to win either pageant as that would have entailed spending another year away from "her man".
In any event, the point I am trying to make is that girls that hope to win the title need to put their romances on the back-burner until they've competed at Miss SA or until after they've handed over the crown to a successor in the event of a win. If any romantic involvement is of such a nature that it makes news headlines, don't even bother entering because your entry will simply be placed in "File 13".
You need to decide: A crown on your head or your heart on your sleeve.