An all-female team will lead this year’s production of the Miss South Africa pageant in commemoration of Women’s Month.
The team will organise, produce and direct the live show on August 13 at the SunBet Arena at Times Square in Pretoria. The only man who will assist the team will be style and fashion guru Werner Wessels.
The team has appointed Black Swan Media, led by former The Voice SA producer Relebogile Mabotja, to produce the live pageant show.
Mabotja said it was exciting to lead a team of women that will ensure, by themselves, that the pageant happens. However, she said it was scary that this was only celebrated now as it should have long been the case.
“Miss South Africa has never had a young black woman as an executive producer and series producer on two of their properties simultaneously. Nor have they had women in the roles of show director, technical director and content director, with women on the crew doing art, sound and digitising,” said Mabotja.
“When I was eight-years-old, my parents took me – all dolled up – to watch Miss South Africa. It was so beautiful, the era of Jacqui Mofokeng. It became a thing we attended as a family. Fast forward three decades and I can proudly say I am the producer and executive producer of the show I watched as a little girl.”
The former Metro FM talent said she was excited to be breaking boundaries and creating opportunities for fellow women. She described this moment as a full circle.
Miss South Africa CEO Stephanie Weil said they took a drive down the history of the pageant and realised they never had an all-women team in charge of airing the pageant live.
“This year, everything about the pageant has a different tool and feel,” said Weil. “For the first time in the pageant’s history, I appointed a reality crew to follow the Top 10 on their journey to the finale and record behind-the-scenes moments. The result makes for really engrossing viewing.”
The Top 10 contestants are Anarzade Omar, Ayanda Thabethe, Itumeleng Parage, Keaoleboga Nkashe, Lebogang Mahlangu, Luvé Meyer, Luyanda Zuma, Ndavi Nokeri, Pearl Ntshehi and Tamsyn Jack.
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