Miss SA withdraws from Miss Supranational 2025, chooses not to renew event license

The Miss South Africa organisation has confirmed that it will not participate in this year’s Miss Supranational, which will take place in Poland next month.

“The Miss South Africa Organisation has decided not to participate in the Miss Supranational 2025 competition and will not be renewing its license for the event,” read a brief statement from the pageant.

Miss Supranational is an annual international beauty pageant that started in 2009. Most contests are held in Poland. Seven years later, a parallel male contest, Mister Supranational, was established.

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South Africa at Miss Supranational

Traditionally, Miss SA runner-ups usually take centre stage for this international competition, while the winner represents South Africa through Miss Universe or Miss World.

South Africa has been a regular participant at Miss Supranational. Many were surprised when Miss SA 2021 winner Lalela Mswane participated and eventually won the pageant in 2022.

In 2023, Ayanda Thabethe, the Miss SA 2022 runner-up, represented South Africa at the Miss Supranational 2023 pageant in Poland.

That year, former Miss SA Jo-Ann Strauss even hosted Miss Supranational.

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Last year, Bryoni Govender, who was first runner-up in 2023 at Miss SA, represented Mzansi at Miss Supranational.

Nompumelelo Maduna was expected to represent South Africa this year; however, Miss SA’s decision not to participate this year means South Africa will not be involved.

“This decision was made solely by the Organisation and is not attributed to Miss South Africa 2024, Mia le Roux, nor the runner-up, Nompumelelo Maduna,” said Miss SA.

The Citizen contacted the Miss SA organisation on Wednesday for comment on its decision to withdraw, but no response had been received at the time of publishing.

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A week of controversy for Miss SA

The decision to pull out of Miss Supranational comes just days after reigning Miss SA, Mia le Roux, had to respond to online questions about her response on the red carpet, just before the Metro FM awards.

Broadcaster Mpumi Mlambo asked Le Roux who her favourite music artist was.

“Within the music industry I don’t have a favourite South African artist as I am deaf, so I do not listen to music” said Miss SA in response.

There was a cocktail of reactions to this answer.

Some felt it was inappropriate for Mlambo to ask L Roux this question, as she lives with profound hearing loss. She was diagnosed with the disability at the age of one and received a cochlear implant a year later.

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Others praised Le Roux’s honesty and questioned why her PR team hadn’t prepared her for such questions from the media since she was attending a music awards event.

“At the Metro Awards, when asked about my favourite artist or song, I didn’t want to give a superficial answer or name an artist I couldn’t fully appreciate in the way they deserve. I was trying to be respectful — not evasive,” said Le Roux in a statement.

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