Whilst the Top 12 finalists in the Miss SA pageant are entering the home straight, the Top 12 finalists in the Mr SA pageant have just left the starting blocks in the race for the crown early next year. In racing terms, a number of possible medalists must have false-started in the semi-final round because this is definitely not the Top 12 in terms of looks.It is interesting to note that in a pageant where men "of colour" are not de rigueur, there are 4 finalists of African heritage. Whilst this is commendable, is this the absolute best the organisers could do to make the line-up credibly representative? I doubt that any of them will give the likes of Tyson Beckford, Shemar Moore or Blair Underwood (to name but a few) any sleepless nights.
In a year when the African "sistas" are top-class, the "brothas" are really letting the team down. I have calculated that out of a pool of 20 million black males in SA, approximately 42,000 are potential Mr SA candidates (that's 1% of African males aged 20 to 35). I'm inclined to ascribe the phenomenon to tribal taboos, but with the urbanisation of black males this can't really be an issue any longer.
As far as their white counterparts go, the picture isn't any rosier. I'm speechless at the number of absolute stunners that were left out of the Top 12. There are only 3 or 4 white finalists that would not look out of place in a line-up at Mr Venezuela or Mr Spain. The others would really look like charity cases.
The Mr SA website makes it very clear that it is not a primary objective of the organisation to produce a Mr World, but for heavens sake, it is still a "beauty pageant". Have any of the organisers been down to Clifton Beach in summer? I realise that the offering sur le plage would not necessarily be interested in entering the pageant, but has anyone tried to recruit any of them? I don't think so.
In any event, one can only name a winner out of the available pool of finalists and at this point in time it would be a toss-up between Chase Watkin-Jones, Pieter Badenhorst and Ryno Swanepoel for the title. But that's not going to happen, is it?
