Unlike last year when I picked the winner of the Miss SA pageant straight from the entry photographs, I have absolutely no idea who is going to make the Top 12 this year, let alone win the title. Apart from a few repeaters and model-types, the 34 contestants that have made it through to the semi-finals this year are rather unknown quantities as far as I am concerned.
A few weeks ago I planned to "evaluate" each of the Top 34, and did start with the first two, but it seems to be rather a pointless exercise since (a) in many instances the photographs do no reflect the entrant's pageant potential, (b) there are too many variables ie. styling, photographer and setting, and (c) I know very little about these girls and their personalities.
What I have done is divide the semi-finalists into two groups of 17: those that are "in" and those that are "out". I've heard via the grapevine that the flavour of the pageant this year is "caramel" and would have been tempted to include mostly semi-finalists of Central Asian origin in the group of Top 17, but decided against that model and went the safe route by naming an "in" group proportional to the racial, ethnic and cultural representation of the semi-finalists.
Without further ado, the Top 12 will, in my opinion, more than likely come from the following group of semi-finalists:
A few weeks ago I planned to "evaluate" each of the Top 34, and did start with the first two, but it seems to be rather a pointless exercise since (a) in many instances the photographs do no reflect the entrant's pageant potential, (b) there are too many variables ie. styling, photographer and setting, and (c) I know very little about these girls and their personalities.
What I have done is divide the semi-finalists into two groups of 17: those that are "in" and those that are "out". I've heard via the grapevine that the flavour of the pageant this year is "caramel" and would have been tempted to include mostly semi-finalists of Central Asian origin in the group of Top 17, but decided against that model and went the safe route by naming an "in" group proportional to the racial, ethnic and cultural representation of the semi-finalists.
Without further ado, the Top 12 will, in my opinion, more than likely come from the following group of semi-finalists:
None of the following 17 semi-finalists will , in my opinion, make the Top 12:
Here's crossing my fingers and toes hoping that I've made the right call. Ultimately it depends on who "passes" Aunty Sonia's Rorschach Ink-blot test at the workshop I suppose.