Emile and Razia are SA’s Power Couple

This is according to the winners of the first season of Power Couple, Emile and Razia Samson, who walked away with more than R500 000 when the show came to an end on Thursday.

The pair from Johannesburg have been together for fifteen years and have three daughters. They beat seven other couples in the reality show competition, which is based on their abilities to “predict” how their partner would fare in certain challenges and deciding how much money they would bet on their partner’s performance.

With each task, couples had the opportunity to raise money that would go towards their winnings, should they get to the final. In the end, Emile and Razia were up against one of the competition’s strongest couples, Viki and Dyllan Smith, who had raised over R1 million.

“We were competing with couples who were much stronger than us physically and who could perform better at a lot of tasks,” says Emile. “But the show wasn’t all about physical strength. As a couple we were also challenged emotionally, mentally and psychologically. What has brought us this far is being able to work well as a team and that comes from knowing exactly who your partner is.”

They laugh as they recall how they first met. “We were both invited to a get together at a friend’s place,” says Emile. “I was intimidated by her at first because I thought I didn’t stand a chance with such an amazing woman. When we finally spoke, we hit it off.”

Emile is a visual merchandising expert, while Razia works in fashion recruitment. Speaking on what they’ve learned about each other through the show Emile says: “I’ve always known that Razia is a strong person. This competition just showed me that she’s actually much stronger than I had thought.”

Razia says the show has taught her to listen to her husband a lot more as he brings the calm to their relationship. “Sometimes I can get very caught up in wanting to do things my way. “Being on this show has shown me that sometimes, or maybe a lot of the times, I just need to listen to Emile and trust his judgment.”

On what they will be doing with the money, Razia jokes about a shopping spree and horse riding lessons for their daughters, but Emile is quick to say they don’t have any plans yet.