South Africans are one step closer to meeting their new Miss SA following the announcement of the top 10 finalists on Wednesday afternoon.

Pageant organisers revealed the 10 beauties vying for the coveted crown two months before the finale - taking place on October 24 - in a glamorous and entertainment-packed pageant that will be screened live on M-Net and Mzansi Magic

The finalists represent six provinces – Gauteng, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Limpopo and North West - and are an impressive group which includes two medical doctors working on the Covid-19  frontline, two full-time international models as well as marketing, education and economics graduates and a food scientist.

Organisers also confirmed that for the first time in the history of the pageant, the contestants who make the top 3 will represent the country at the world’s three most prestigious pageants, namely Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Supranational.

Commenting on the selection of the finalists, Stephanie Weil, chief executive of the Miss SA pageant, said: “We have whittled down these finalists from literally thousands of entrants, and we believe we have found the 10 women who, right now, represent everything Miss SA stands for.

“Any one of these women could be crowned the winner, but only one will take the crown from her predecessor, Sasha Lee Olivier

"We can look forward to a very exciting pageant where our judges are going to have the extremely difficult task of choosing Miss SA 2020.”

THE 10 FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER):

Aphelele Mbiyo

Busisiwe Mmotla

Chantelle Pretorius

Jordan van der Vyver

Karishma Ramdev

Lebogang Mahlangu

Melissa Nayimuli

Natasha Joubert

Shudufhadzo Musida (winner of the public vote, in which members of the public were invited to vote for their favourite contestant and propel her into the top 10)

Thato Mosehle

This story first appeared in the Sunday Times Lifestyle.