Miss South Africa 2020, the 62nd edition of national pageant, hosted the coronation night just few hours ago at The Table Bay Hotel, Cape Town where Shudufhadzo Musida was crowned as Miss South Africa 2020. She succeeds Miss South Africa 2019 Sasha-Lee Olivier for the title.
Before she was crowned as Miss South Africa 2020, the top five delegates; Shudufhadzo Musida, Thato Thelma Mosehle, Natasha Joubert, Melissa Nayimuli, and Lebogang Mahlangu were put to a grilling question and answer round which was their last chance to impress the judges and the audience with their intelligent and witty answers in thirty seconds. Let’s look at the final question asked to the Top 5 finalists for the title of Miss South Africa 2020 and the exceptionally well-defined answers by them:
Thato Thelma Mosehle was called up first and was asked, “South Africa and the world became a global community in the last 10 months, what were the glaring inequalities that separated us and what unified us?” Thato looked stunning in her orange evening gown and answered the question by stating, “What separated us is what has always separated us, which is the social economic equalities. I mean some people were trying out new recipes meanwhile others were starving. I think what united us is that we all suffered some kind of a pain and were able to understand and recognize it in someone else. I think we were united by the pain so we showed more compassion and more caring towards each other’s.”
Melissa Nayimuli was called up next and was asked, “A terrible pandemic hit the world this year, what advise would you give you to someone who had to close their business because of it?”. Melissa looked absolutely ravishing in her red evening gown and answered the question confidently by stating, “One thing I have come to understand is that people with small business treat it like their babies, it is something that they work really hard for and is not us to say that oh no, you can easily move on and build up again. I believe that anyone needs to take time to mourn and respect that and build up again once they are ready. All my job as a person is to encourage them and just make sure that they have to strength to start all over again.”
The next one was Lebogang Mahlangu in her beautiful pink evening gown where she was asked, “In addition to the wild divide, the covid-19 pandemic has strongly highlighted the digital divide. What advice to our government corporates and individuals would you give to narrow this divide?”. Lebogang answered, “I think we live in an age where information and knowledge is used to judge people and it is sad that we live in a country that has always struggled to give infrastructure and access to quality education. I believe that there are efforts being made to making sure that access to the digital devices and data is given to people but I would also focus on creating education systems.”
Natasha Joubert looked stunning in her green evening gown and was next one to be called upon for the question and answer round. She was asked, “On 27th March 2020 our country went to a full lockdown leaving South Africans feeling deeply insecure, uncertain, and afraid. When things become challenging in your life tell me about the internal space or place where you go to steady yourself?” Natasha confidently answered, “As a business owner I know many lives have been impacted through covid19, and it is actually mental health awareness month, I think its very very important to take care of your mental health. What I would usually do is spend time with family and friends and revert and see what you still have left and not only look at what you lost.”
Shudufhadzo Musida was the last one to be called upon for the question and answer round and was asked a question by none other than our stunning Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi herself. She was asked, “In the past year, we’ve witnessed a global wave of mass demonstrations against gender-based violence and the black lives matter movement. If you could mobilize a group of people what movement would you mobilize and why?” Shudufhadzo in her yellow evening gown standing confident and strong answered, “I would call my movement, the Mindful Movement. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death between people aged 15 and 29 and one out of three people are expected to suffer from mental illnesses in their lifetime. So, I believe that mobilizing people to strive for mental health would actually fix so many social ills in our society and that is what I would mobilize.”
All the finalists sounded confident and focused towards the one goal that was to win the title of Miss South Africa 2020 and be able to represent the country at Miss Universe 2020 stage.