2019-09-01 Cosmopolitan South Africa

Along with Sibabalwe, the
top 16 included Kgothatso
Dithebe, who has a unique
birthmark on her face. Many
wore natural hair, but the idea
that runner-up Sasha Lee-
Olivier and Beulah Baduza
are ‘plus-sized’ has been
contested – particularly by
these women themselves, who
bristle at how the modelling
industry labelled them.
As editor and broadcaster
Gugulethu Mhlungu once
commented, critiquing
these platforms must not be
about ‘vilifying the women
who participate in them’.
Fundamentally, we must
question and challenge their
structures and rules while
simultaneously considering
the roots of our critiques.
Many, like Sibabalwe,
are intelligent women, and
they want to use the platform
for campaigns rooted in
communities and causes.
Sibabalwe repeatedly spoke
to pageantry’s inclusion and
diversity realities in interviews,
serving up thoughtful criticisms
while often facing sexist and
homophobic questions –
with the knowledge that she
was widening the space for
LGBTQIA+ contestants who
would come after her.
What would it mean for
this pageant to truly reflect
our country’s beauty ideals,

or to question beauty itself?

Pushing boundaries means

trying to propel societies

into the future, while

going through a visible

public experience. It was

rewarding and challenging

for Sibabalwe, who

understands her queerness

as a layered experience:

‘It's one aspect of my

multiplicity and intersecting

identities as a South

African woman. I advocate

for social justice in general –

the realisation of rights,

the betterment of our

society, fighting for

visibility and bringing

more awareness to the

LG BTQ I co mmunit y.’

She also noted that

she’s not a spokesperson

for all experiences.

While she is the first

openly queer contestant,

Sibabalwe says, ‘I can

almost bet that there have

been other queers in that

space before.’

Watching this year’s

event live, there was

something slightly different

as the contestants shifted

something in the texture of

the pageant. It was felt when

judge Anele Mdoda asked:

‘Through all the darkness that

South African women face –

emotional, spiritual, sexual,

economic abuse – what

reason do we have to keep

smiling?’ Zozibini answered:

‘We have absolutely no

reason to keep smiling,

because South African women

are dying every day, and

people are doing nothing

about it. I think it’s time that

we stop asking women

what to do, and start asking

perpetrators to do better, to

be better, and to start treating

women the way that they

deserve to be treated. It is

not up to us, it is up to the

perpetrators to start doing

t hing s right.’

‘We need people who

are going to say the work

of transforming our society

is still to begin,’ Sibabalwe

says. ‘I think my job is done

for this leg, and I need to do

more work somewhere else.

I don’t know what that is yet.’

On her experience in the

pageant, she says: ‘I wouldn’t

change anything about it. I’m

better than I was because I’m

stronger, braver and bolder.

The crown would have been

amazing and I would have

done great work, but I wasn’t

there for the crown. I was

there to speak my truth, and

hopefully make other people

feel comfortable in doing the

same thing – to be visible.’

As we continue expanding

these conversations about

beauty, gender and identity,

we are charged to remember

that beauty is a construct,

as Thando pointed out. In

every space that we’re in,

we question and challenge

it every day, and this will

help us to create a more

inclusive future.

REAL LIFE

2019 ZozibiniTunzi

2018 Tamaryn Green

2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters

2017 Adè van Heerden

2016 Ntandoyenkosi Kunene

2015 Liesl Laurie

2014 Rolene Strauss

2014 Ziphozakhe Zokufa

2013 Marilyn Ramos

2012 Marilyn Ramos

2011 Melinda Bam

2010 Bokang Montjane

2009 Nicole Flint

2008 Tatum Keshwar

2007 Tansey Coetzee

2006 Megan Coleman

2005 Nokuthula Sithole

2004 Claudia Henkel

2003 Joan Ramagoshi

2002 Cindy Nell

2001 Vanessa Carreira

2000 Jo-Ann Strauss

1999 Heather Joy Hamilton

1998 Sonia Raciti

1997 Kerishnie Naiker

1996 Peggy-Sue Khumalo

1995 Bernelee Daniell

1994 Basetsana Kumalo

1993 Jacqui Mofokeng

1992 Amy Kleinhans-Curd

Miss South Africa

title winners

since 1992* Demi-Leigh Nel-PetersJo-Ann Strauss Kerishnie NaikerBasetsana Kumalo Jacqui MofokengAmy Kleinhans-Curd