The way South Africa has been pulling up in the ladder of pageants is evident from its last few years’ performances. It took 40 years for South Africa to claim its third Miss World crown and the quest for the second Miss Universe crown is still ongoing. While Margaret Gardiner is the only South African to wear the Miss Universe crown back in 1978, Rolene Strauss in 2014, Penelope Anne Coelen in 1958 and Anneline Kriel in 1974 (crowned after original winner resigned) have worn the coveted crown of Miss World for South Africa. This year South Africa’s presentation at both Miss World and Miss Universe has been pretty decent as their power was definitely worth noticing.
After winning the major beauty pageant, Miss World 2014, South Africa seems to be quite solemn in the game. This year, Miss South Africa organization came up with outstandingly artistic and matchless concept of providing a former beauty queen as a mentor to each and every contestant. This idea not only gave the chance to ladies to improve their shortcomings, but also delved them into room of experimentation, providing them the advices needed to outshine the delegates all over the world at an international platform. Liesl Laurie defeated her competitors fair and square, after a meticulous performance and entered into a tumultuous history of Miss World 2015 by becoming one of the Top 10 semi-finalists at the same.
Liesl did not face any pressure at the pageant despite of the fact that the reigning queen belonged to her own country. Her spontaneous personality was definitely the most striking feature of her attitude, and it did not go unheeded at Miss World 2015. Her experiment with variety of wardrobe and style statement made her a complete package to get noticed. Her presence was really one to vouch for, and her inclusion in Top 10 was not at all a surprise.
On the other side, Refilwe Mthimunye was a pleasant surprise of Miss Universe 2015. Despite of an upright performance during the Preliminary Competition, none of the pageant expert believed that Refilwe would make a cut in the semi-finals. With only one Miss Universe winner and that a long time back, South Africa is moderately successful at Miss Universe and its sash does not carry much weightage in the competition when compared to other big sashes. But with WME and IMG as the new head of Miss Universe, South Africa got a deserving placement at Miss Universe 2015 wherein Refilwe Mthimunye flawlessly stunned the audience with her terrific performance.
It seems that South Africa has worked upon its loopholes and is ready to make a mark in major pageants around the world. With no Miss International and Miss Earth winners, South Africa with its recent performances has proved that it is on the right path to claim its glory! It will not be surprising if we could see another Rolene Strauss like beauty from South Africa in coming years.