Miss South Africa 2020 Top 10 finalists are …

The Miss South Africa Top 10 finalists have been announced.

One of them will be crowned Miss South Africa 2020 on Saturday, 24 October during a glamorous and entertainment-packed pageant screened live on M-Net and Mzansi Magic, and streamed for an international audience.

The contestants represent six provinces – Gauteng has four (with three from Tshwane and one from Soweto), followed by the Eastern Cape with two, while KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Limpopo and North West each has one entrant. They are an impressive group and include two medical doctors working on the Covid-19 frontline; two full-time international models as well as marketing, education and economics graduates and a food scientist.

For the first time in the history of the Miss South Africa pageant, the contestants who make the Top 3 will represent the country at the world’s three most prestigious pageants. Previously, the Miss South Africa Organisation sent a representative to both Miss Universe and Miss World, but will now also be fielding a candidate at Miss Supranational.

The 10 finalists are (in alphabetical order of their first names):

• Aphelele Mbiyo, 24, who was born in Mthata and raised in Port Elizabeth but currently lives in Johannesburg, holds a BA in Integrated Marketing Communications.

• Busisiwe Mmotla, 27, is from Soweto and is a Senior & FET Phase teacher who graduated from the University of Johannesburg and is currently studying towards a diploma in personal training.

• Chantelle Pretorius, 24, from Tshwane, Gauteng, a full-time international model who is also finishing her BCom Business Management degree through Unisa and has a diploma in nutrition.

• Jordan van der Vyver, 24, comes from Greenpoint, Cape Town, and is an international model who usually spends half the year working overseas.

• Karishma Ramdev, 25, who hails from Chatsworth in KwaZulu-Natal, is now based in Joburg where she works as a medical doctor at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.

• Lebogang Mahlangu, 24, from Soshanguve, Gauteng, is a food scientist working in research and development for a large multi-national.

• Melissa Nayimuli, 24, is from Butterworth in the Eastern Cape but now lives in Sunninghill, Johannesburg where she works as an account manager for a marketing agency.

• Natasha Joubert, 23, who is from Centurion, Tshwane, has a BCom in Marketing Management and works in PR at a firm of attorneys.

• Shudufhadzo Musida, 24, comes from Ha-Masia in Limpopo and has a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Pretoria. She is currently doing her BA Honours in International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand.

• Thato Mosehle, 25, hails from Klerksdorp in the North West and is a medical doctor currently completing her internship with the aim of becoming an anaesthesiologist.

The winner of the public vote – where members of the public were invited to vote for their favourite contestant and propel her into the Top 10 – was Shudufhadzo Musida.

Stephanie Weil, CEO of the Miss South Africa Organisation said, “We have whittled these finalists down from literally thousands of entrants and we honestly believe we have found the 10 women who, right now, represent everything Miss South Africa stands for.

“Any one of these girls could be crowned the winner but only one will take the crown from her predecessor, Sasha Lee Olivier, so we can look forward to a very exciting pageant where our judges are going to have the extremely difficult task of choosing Miss South Africa 2020.”

Miss South Africa is presented by Weil Entertainment in association with M-Net, Mzansi Magic, Sun International and Brand South Africa.