The dazzling Miss South Africa Pageant to be held at Carnival City on Saturday, presented by Sun International in collaboration with Cell C, will feature exciting local musical talent as well as an appearance by the US’s Monique Bingham.
The line-up includes Prime Circle, MiCasa, Sketchy Bongo and Shekhinah who will entertain the live audience as well the thousands of TV viewers watching the broadcast.
M-Net (DStv channel 101) and Mzansi Magic (DStv channel 161) will televise, from 17h00 to 19h00, 12 of the country’s most beautiful young women vying for the Miss South Africa crown.
Among the 12 are two of our very own Miss Mpumalanga contestants. Ntandoyenkosi Kunene, crowned 2013’s MP beaut as well as former Miss Sundowns Mpumalanga, and Felicia Muwayi, first princess Miss Mpumalanga 2013.
These are the province’s hopefuls to win the title. Miss Mpumalanga organiser, Gugu Nyarenda says, “Our prayers are for one of them to clinch the crown. We request all in the province to put them in their prayers, for them to make us proud as a province and bring it home.”
Since the release of their debut album, Hello Crazy World in 2003, award-winning Prime Circle has dominated the SA music scene. The group believes this year will be their biggest yet, with their seventh studio album due for release in May as well as the deluxe edition of their award-winning album Let the Night In with its four bonus tracks being made available. At the pageant they will perform their hit “Doors”.
MiCasa, one of the biggest dance bands in South Africa today, comprises Dr Duda (piano), J’Something (vocalist and guitarist) and trumpeter Mo-T who will take to the stage for their latest sensation “Don’t Wanna Be Your Friend”.
Monique Bingham – performing “Deep in The Bottom” – has been responsible for some of the most soulful, jazz-infused house music of the past 17 years. Since her first visit to South Africa in 2011, New York’s Bingham is so deep-set in the Mzansi house culture that her most recent hit “The Pap” was a tribute to South African food staple chesa nyama.
Hailing from KZN, Sketchy Bongo, with his ski mask and signature sounds, is a major name in the SA music industry, working with big names like AKA, JR, Da L.E.S and Aewon Wolf. He is also the only producer in South Africa to have had his own feature on MTV Base, which only playlisted tracks produced by him. He will be performing with Shekhinah Donnell, who burst onto the national stage as one of the youngest Idols SA contestants ever back in 2011, where she made it to the top eight.
“We are truly excited and grateful to be performing at the Miss South Africa 2016 pageant,” Bongo says.
“This is such a prestigious event and we can’t wait to share a stage with these strong, independent, beautiful women. What you can expect from us will be an energetic, emotional performance that is sure to have audiences all over the country singing along to ‘Let You Know’.”
The 12 women competing for the Miss South Africa 2016 title are: Elizabeth Molapo (Bloemfontein, Free State), Felicia Muwayi (Nelspruit, Mpumalanga), Luyolo Mngonyama (Umtata, Eastern Cape), Marciel Hopkins (Paarl, Western Cape), Mikaela Oosthuizen (Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape), Ntandoyenkosi Kunene (Mkhondo, Mpumalanga), Reabetswe Sechoaro (Pretoria East, Gauteng), Ronette Chambers (Cape Town, Western Cape), Sarah Botes (Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng), Schané Venter (Alberton, Gauteng), Sharon-Rose Khumalo (Pretoria, Gauteng) and Tayla Skye Robinson (Roodepoort, Gauteng).
