Alexander, Morris – born 4th December 1877 in Czinn, East Prussia, Germany and died in Cape Town on 24th January 1946, lawyer and parliamentarian, was the eldest son of Abraham Alexander and his wife, Flora Lewin; he had four brothers and two sisters. In 1881 the family settled in South Africa. Alexander’s education at private schools in Cape Town was interrupted in 1891, when he joined his parents in Johannesburg. Owing to his parents’ straitened circumstances, he was compelled to work, first as a clerk at the National bank and later as an employee of the Cape government railways.He succeeded in saving a little money, which enabled him to resume his schooling. In 1893 he enrolled at the South African college, Cape Town, where he won the gold medal for arts in 1896. He graduated at the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1897, gaining a Porter scholarship; read law at St John’s College, Cambridge; and joined the Inner Temple, London. He obtained first-class honours in 1899 in the first part of the law tripos, and was awarded a Foundation scholarship. On 15 th November 900 he was called to the bar in Cape Town and rapidly established himself as a leading criminal lawyer, taking silk in 1919.

From his early youth Alexander showed a keen interest in public affairs. He served on the Cape Town city council (1905-43) and, except for the years 1929 to 1931, he was a member of the Cape and the Union parliaments from 1908 to 1946.

Throughout his life he remained true to his liberal creed of ‘equal rights for all civilized men, whatever their race, colour or creed’, and his sympathies were ever with the underprivileged. Elected to the Cape legislative assembly as a Progressive (later Unionist), he resigned from the party on account of ideological differences on 27th November 1920, and in 1921 he founded the Constitutional Democrat Party, of which he was the leader and sole parliamentary representative in the Union house of assembly for the following ten years. In 1931 he joined the South African party, remaining a follower of Gen. J.C. Smuts to the end.

He served the Jewish community for over forty years. He founded the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Cape Colony (4th September 1904) and was a leader of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, of which it formed part after 1912. He was primarily responsible for the recognition of Yiddish as a European language in terms of the Immigration act of 1906. He had been a vigorous supporter of the Zionist movement ever since 1904, and throughout his life he continued to resist attempts such as the Immigration Restriction act and the Immigration Quota act of 1930 – to discriminate against Jewish immigration.

For forty years he was president of the New Hebrew congregation, Cape Town, and often preached there. Alexander befriended all sections of the population. In parliament he was the recognized spokesman of the Public Service association and of the postal and telegraph employees. Opposed to the colour-bar, he attacked every measure designed to restrict non-European rights. He was a friend of M.K. Gandhi and invariably championed the cause of the Indians. He was also a staunch supporter of the franchise for women.

He was active in many welfare organizations; humble people with wrongs to be righted continually sought his assistance. He was an inveterate letter-writer, fifty letters a day being his minimum quota; the number sometimes swelled to one hundred letters, all written by hand.

In June 1907 Alexander married Ruth Schechter, the daughter of Solomon Schechter, the Hebraist; they had three children, a son and two daughters. After a divorce in 1935, Alexander’s second marriage (15.8.1935) was to Enid Asenath Baumberg, of Sydney, who subsequently wrote his biography.

His portrait by J.H. Amshewitz is in the National art gallery, Cape Town. In 1963 his voluminous papers, some 14,000 items in all, including material on Judaism in South Africa, and the Coloured and other minority groups (1905-45), were presented by his widow to the Jagger library, University of Cape Town.

Source: Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa – copyright Media24 Digital

Image: National Archives

Morris Alexander

Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus

Born in Lübeck, Germany on 1st December 1845 and died in Cape Town on 11th October 1946, commercial pioneer, was the second child of Christian Ludwig Karl Spilhaus, a Lubeck merchant and government official, and his wife, Caroline Henriette Wassner. Educated at a private school, he was apprenticed, on completing his education, to a local wholesale firm. He served a four-year apprenticeship and then worked as a clerk for a year before obtaining a position with Messrs Lippert Brothers, the well-known German-South African trading concern. It was as an employee of the Lippert Brothers that he came to South Africa in 1869.

After spending an adventurous two years exploring the Zambezi and the possibilities of trading on the East Coast, Arnold was appointed (September 1871) manager of the Lippert Brothers’ Cape Town office. He retained this position until December 1876 when he founded his own firm in partnership with Herbert Wilman of Beaufort West. This partnership, known as Wilman, Spilhaus and Company, lasted until the end of 1895 when Herbert Wilman retired. Spilhaus took over the entire business at the beginning of 1896 and renamed it Wm. Spilhaus & Co.

In 1873 he married Lydia Mary Sedgwick, daughter of Captain James Sedgwick. They had three sons and four daughters. In 1891 he became a British subject. When the firm of Wm. Spilhaus and Company was made a limited liability company in 1915, two of his sons and a son-in-law joined him as the first directors. Originally trading in wool, hides, skins, and imported produce, the firm acquired a variety of interests (also diamonds) as it developed. A significant stage in this development was reached in the early 1900s with the importation of South Africa ‘s first reaper/binder. From the late 1920s, as tractors became popular, agricultural machinery gradually became the mainstay of the business, which grew into a major South African concern.

Over the years Arnold gradually relinquished his interests in the firm until, at the end of his life, he was concerned only with the declining produce department. This department was finally closed a month after his death. The firm, however, continued to prosper on the foundations he had laid.

A man of wide cultural interests, Spilhaus spoke most European languages fluently and was an early patron of South African art. His flair for philosophical speculation is entertainingly reflected in the pamphlets Thoughts over the coffee cups, over the coffee and cigars, and Random thoughts, which were published during the later years of his life. Despite deafness and failing eyesight, Arnold remained remarkably active in old age. By the time of his death, aged 100 years and ten months, his life-long integrity and fiercely independent spirit had earned him the title of ‘the grand old man of Cape Town’. He died at his home ‘Hohenort’ in Cape Town which he acquired in 1906 and his ashes were buried in his wife’s grave at Christ Church, Constantia.

Photographs of Spilhaus appear in Men of the times (Cape Town, 1906); Arnold Wilhelm Spilhaus: Reminiscences and family records (Cape Town, 1950), and Cape Times (supplement), 1.12.1976. Other portraits are in the possession of the Spilhaus family.

Image source: Men of The Times 1913.

Friederich Wilhelm August Pagel

Born in Plathe, Pomerania, Germany on 5 February 1878, and died in Knysna, 13 October 1948.

Friedrich, the ‘strong man’ and circus proprietor, was the son of Antonie Fraudnich and August Pagel, a huge strong man.

Friedrich inherited his father’s great size and strength which he enhanced by working at a smithy at Plathe. He qualified as a blacksmith when he was seventeen, but became a ship’s stoker and travelled widely and adventurously, finally deserting his ship at Sydney, Australia, where after miscellaneous menial occupations he developed a ‘strong man’ act and became an unsuccessful side-show.

In Tasmania in 1899 he met and married Mary Dinsdale (1865 to 24 December 1939), a Yorkshire woman from Leeds with a keen monetary sense. She repaired and improved their joint fortunes, while Pagel, in circuses in Australia, gained increasing renown for his act, which now included a lion called Hopetown. In 1904 they visited Europe with the lion, and in England assembled material for a circus, travelling via the East Coast to Durban where they landed in February 1905. The circus toured Natal and continued to Johannesburg where Pagel extended it with trapeze and other acts.

A successful season enabled him to begin a tour of South Africa, followed by one to Rhodesia, which ultimately established his circus as a national institution. With his phenomenal feats of strength and his command of ferocious carnivores, Pagel became a popular and respected figure, particularly in the dorps. During the post-war depression when the theatre languished and the cinema existed only in the hands of touring showmen, with disreputable films, the circus was the most popular form of public entertainment, but hazardous financially.

Pagel and his wife (who supervised the box-office) went to India and Burma early in 1906 to purchase tigers, elephants and other animals for a new circus. This was enlarged by numerous turns, including Madame Pagel herself in an act with lions, tigers and leopards. Opening in Durban Pagel’s greatly extended circus toured the country successfully until the First World War (1914-1918) when, as an enemy alien, he encountered insuperable difficulties; feelings ran high despite the fact that Madame hung her marriage certificate above the box-office to dissuade hostile mobs. Early in 1918 Pagel was interned for a brief period at Pietermaritzburg.

He became a South African citizen after the war and again went to the East to collect animals for a new circus whose attractions proved acceptable during increasingly depressed times. Profits were safeguarded by the avarice and violent language of Madame at the till and elsewhere. She also secured unprecedented publicity by driving in an open car accompanied by a large-maned lion which went with her on foot on a leash.

Since depression now deprived him of audiences in South Africa, Pagel ventured on a tour of East Africa in 1933; this, beginning disastrously, continued unsuccessfully and as he lacked permission to import his animals into the Union he took his circus to the Far East, where it was equally unsuccessful. Pagel bought a few animals in Java, returned with the circus to Lourenço Marques, and finally brought it to Pretoria whence he resumed his tours of the Union and Rhodesia. By then, Madame was seventy years of age and ill, She became a chronic invalid in 1938 and died on 24 December 1939 on the farm for training animals which Pagel had established at Pretoria North. Her nurse, Miss Cecil Schulz (died on 26 May 1976), daughter of Dr Aurel Schulz, remained on the farm to manage Pagel’s business interests. In 1940 they were married and toured together with the circus.

With a greatly extended and varied programme, Pagel operated widely and successfully during the Second World War (1939-45), much money being raised for war funds. Entertainment in general was now highly sophisticated, but the circus held its own, even playing for two weeks at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg, until hampered on tour by the poliomyelitis epidemic of 1947-48. While performing in the Free State in May 1948 Pagel suffered a cerebral haemorrhage from which he only partially recovered, his speech being affected; but the show went on.

In July 1948 he insisted that the circus should celebrate his 50th anniversary in the ring at ‘jubilee’ performances in Pretoria; but he himself was ill on his farm in Pretoria North and although he later accompanied his circus on tour he died of heart failure at Knysna three months later. He was buried on his farm while, in the tradition he had established, his circus continued its itinerary before it was ultimately disbanded.

Pagel was a quiet, softly-spoken man of temperate habits and an original philosophy. He suffered severe injury on several occasions from attacks by animals without losing confidence in handling them. His training methods were not cruel, and long after his death circus-goers testified that his lions lovingly licked his face and showed no fear. Pagel re-created the prestige of the circus originated by Frank Fillis and provided the public at all levels with relatively cheap entertainment when and where it was most needed.

There is a portrait in oils of him by Dorothy Kaye in the Africana Museum, Johannesburg. A bust of Pagel done by Coert Steynberg is to be found among the latter’s private collection in Pretoria North.

Source: Dictionary of South African Biographies – Volume IV (Copyright: Media24 Digital)

Born on the 22nd August 1874 in a London suburb; died 5 February 1951 in Johannesburg. Conductor, composer.The son of German emigrants to England, Theo Wendt’s father was not completely happy about British education and sent his son to one of the Moravian Church Schools (probably Klein Welka) in Germany. There the discipline was strict, the academic standards high, and the boy could indulge his musical inclinations by beating the drum in the cadet band and by having pianoforte lessons. By the time he had turned fourteen he was determined on a career as a musician and after he had been tested by Carl Reinecke, the Director of the Leipzig Conservatoire, he returned to England for piano lessons under Robert Ernst, before entering the Conservatoire in Cologne in 1891. During his two student years in Germany he became saturated with the late German romanticism of Wagner, and returned to England for further study at the RAM. There the Academy Orchestra offered the possibility of nurturing his rapidly growing love of orchestral direction. He played the viola, at times also the timpani and other percussion instruments, and had sufficient opportunity for exercising his conducting talent. Exempted from examination, he was elected an Associate in the year in which he left England (1896).

He came to South Africa, provisionally to teach pianoforte and harmony at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown. He taught for 29 hours a week, but he also had a select private practice and was appointed to the management of a new branch of the music dealers, Jackson Bros. In time he also took up the teaching of pianoforte at St Andrew’s College. He became prominent at concerts at which he featured in the company of Percy Ould, a violinist whom he assisted in organizing music for the Grahamstown Exhibition of Arts and Crafts (end of 1898 – beginning of 1899). Wendt composed an Ode for chorus and orchestra to mark the beginning of the Exhibition and also spent some time playing on the pianos exhibited by Jackson’s. Shortly after his arrival, and towards the end of 1899, he presented pianoforte recitals at which a few of his own compositions featured on the programmes. But the opportunities for a first-rate musician were too limited and in 1901 he left the town to take up for a short while the management of a new musical branch of Darter’s in East London and then to visit Durban for a year.

Wendt embarked on a tour of South Africa in July/August 1914 (despite war clouds) and gave over 50 successful concerts at Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Potchefstroom, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban (when the War broke out), Grahamstown (to revive old memories?) and Port Elizabeth. They returned to Cape Town by sea. The tours were resumed after the War and became an annual event, inspiring Durban and eventually Johannesburg to emulate them.

Amid the rather dreary round of recreational and social concerts, the Thursday evening concerts devoted to the symphonic repertoire formed an almost charmed circle and extreme measures had to be adopted after the War when they were endangered by financial considerations. A voluntary Thursday Evening Subscriber’s Society saved the situation by guaranteeing a few thousand pounds each year for their continuation. Without these concerts Wendt would have had no cause to stay on in Cape Town. In 1921 the reluctance of the Council to concede his artistic aims led him to the brink of resignation. He was approached by the Vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand to consider an appointment to the chair of Music in their projected Music Department. When Cape Town required to know the conditions under which he would continue as conductor, he demanded that the Council be relieved of the responsibility of the orchestra; this meant that an outside body would have to accept its management. The Cape Peninsula Publicity Association took up the burden and a new arrangement was reached which relieved the conductor of perennial financial worries. But after three happy years with the orchestra, there was trouble over the reinstatement of a previous reduction of 5% to the players, and when Wendt indignantly took up the cudgels, he was threatened with a reduction of R600 in his salary to meet the additional costs. In April 1924, on the eve of the orchestra’s sixth tour of the Union of South Africa, Wendt fesigned and became Musical Director and Studio Manager of South Africa’s first broadcasting station in Johannesburg. His first association with radio lasted two-and-a-half years and was ended when the broadcasting licence was awarded to Mr Schlesinger, a step which led to the creation of an African Broadcasting Company and the reconsideration of all aspects of broadcasting.

Wendt was responsible for supplying seven hours of listening entertainment each day. This included talks for women and children, operatic excerpts, plays, orchestral and chamber music concerts, as well as light music.

At the end of 1926 he departed from South Africa to establish himself in the United States of America. The American part of his career can be summarized. During the first six years of his stay he was mainly a lecturer in harmony and counterpoint at a college of music, but soon he had a variety of other occupations. He had some standing with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, for whom he composed original music and orchestrated existing music; on Sundays he travelled to Boston to conduct the Boston People’s Symphony Orchestra of 90 players; during the difficult times of the Great Depression he organized and conducted 90 orchestral players at Carnegie Hall and as a result was engaged by the National Broadcasting Corporation to conduct a series of symphony concerts. By 1933 he was established in American music circles and achieved an appointment as permanent conductor of the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra in Western New York State. Three years later he left America to visit Germany with his third wife, a Wagnerian soprano, presumably for the furtherance of their respective careers. While in Germany he had the opportunity of conducting the Berlin Radio Orchestra and was invited to London by the BBC to conduct his Six South African songs for a radio broadcast.

Barely a year after his arrival in Germany he was contacted in Munich by Rene Caprara, the first Director General of the SABC, to join Jeremy Schulman and Arnold Fulton in conducting the new SABC Orchestra. He accepted this proposition and landed in South Africa for the third time in February 1938, this time to conduct a body of players which, in combination with the semi-professional City Orchestra of John Connell, had at times a complement of 80. This arrangement lasted until 1944 when the SABC appointed him their official orchestrator and arranger. During these years he also returned to Cape Town as a guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra he had established. The University of Cape Town awarded him an honorary Doctorate in Music on 10 December 1948.

Source: South African Music Encyclopaedia and Cape Times.

Born in 1948 in Pinelands, Cape Town. Concert pianist.At the age of three Tessa Uys had her first piano lessons from her mother, Helga Bassel, and when she was thirteen she made her debut with the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra in the City Hall. Until 1967, when she matriculated and left for London on a bursary awarded in 1965 by the Associated Board, her training was continued by Sona Whiteman and Lamar Crowson. In London she trained to become a concert pianist and she remained there until 1980. After her arrival she was taught by Gordon Green and obtained a few licentiates; she also won a number of awards. As her study advanced she entered for master classes in England and on the continent, where she was a pupil of Maria Curcio from 1972. Her concert career commenced in 1970. Since then she has often played in Great Britain, but also in Germany, Holland, Italy and Belgium and has been engaged by the BBC and Radio Netherlands in Hilversum for broadcasts. Her concert appearances in Great Britain include performances of concertos with London orchestras. Through the years she has not neglected her professional connections with South Africa and is at present resident here and a professionally active factor in the country’s music.

Born on the 7th December 1924 in Durban; at present (1983) in London. University lecturer in Bantu Languages and Ethnomusicology, instrumentalist and music teacher.David Rycroft comes from an exceptionally musical family. His father was an organist in Durban,and Johannesburg; his sister (Mrs Lynette Neilson) is also an organist; his cousin, Eric Rycroft, lectures in music at Stellenbosch University and is a violinist, and his uncle, Prof. H.B. Rycroft (formerly Director of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens) introduced him to the accordion (in 1936). The next generation too, is musical – Eric Rycroft’s daughter, Anne, played the viola in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Rycroft himself started to learn the piano when he was seven, and continued in Johannesburg under G. Barclay Donn when the family moved there in 1933. His father, who was organist of the Rosebank Union Church, taught him the organ, and by the time he was sixteen he was able to deputise at various churches. He was organist of Christ Church, Hillbrow from 1946 to 1952.

Rycroft’s interest in wind instruments, too, began in his childhood with a harmonica and a penny whistle. He advanced to the tenor saxhorn at school (Parktown High) and played in the cadet band. Thereafter he studied all the usual brass instruments and taught himself to play the flute, piccolo, recorder and oboe. He played the oboe in both his school orchestra and later in the orchestra of the University of the Witwatersrand, which he attended from 1942-1946. His studies (in Bantu languages and phonetics) were briefly interrupted by war service. At the completion of his university course he became Cultural Recreation Officer in the former Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department and involved in many interesting aspects of music: he promoted Black cultural activities, including adult education in music, became a member of Hugh Tracey’s African Music Society and of the Bantu Music Festival Committee, and played the accompaniments to the Xhosa song recitals of Todd Matshikiza (composer of King Kong) on the SABC’s English programme (1950). In 1952 David Rycroft and his wife emigrated to England where he took up a post as lecturer in Bantu Languages and Ethnomusicology at London University ‘s School of Oriental and African studies. Since then he has frequently visited South Africa on field trips. He has published much of his research, which centres largely on the music, language and literature of the Swazi and Zulu peoples, and he has broadcast on the BBC, Radio Belgium and Radio Swaziland. He has also presented many conference papers and has lectured in the USA, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Ghana, West Germany, Belgium, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

In the meantime he has continued to be an active musician, in an unconventional way. He was a co-founder of the Guild of Gentlemen Trumpeters, which is called on to play fanfares at historic events; and he also co-founded the New Melstock Band (a name derived from the church band in Thomas Hardy’s book Under the greenwood tree). In the Band he plays period instruments such as the baroque oboe, early bassoon clarinet, serpent, ophicleide, cornet, cornopean, keyed bugle, natural horn, slide trumpet, trombones, helicon and tuba. They perform at old churches, stately homes, colleges and museums. In his spare time, Rycroft teaches brass instruments at a local school, directs pupils in a wind ensemble, and plays the accordion at village fetes or country dances when required. His four adult children have all inherited his musical talent.

A large number of beauty contests have been held in South Africa since 1910. The most important being those in which the winners are entered in overseas contests.

The first beauty contests

In 1910, a beauty pageant was held in Cape Town to celebrate the newly formed Union of South Africa. Each province sent a representative that was picked by a prominent man in her region.
The first national beauty contest was organised by the magazine Stage Cinema in 1918. Three women were chosen to star in films based on Rider Haggard's books.

Edna JOYCE was chosen to play the Queen of Sheba in King Solomon's Mines. Mabel MAY and Elise HAMILTON were chosen to play twin sisters in Allan Quatermain.

Many contests held after World War I were mainly fund-raising efforts, often for the Governor-General's fund. In 1925 Mavis ALEXANDER won the Cape Argus Queen of the Gala competition.

The first woman to carry the Miss South Africa title, unofficially, was Winnie COMYNS of Cape Town, who won a national contest organised by the South African Lady's Pictorial in 1926. Blanca Borckenhagen was Queen of the Orange Free State; Ethel Jagger, Queen of the Cape, Gyn Hathorn, Queen of Natal, and Blanca van der Hoven, Queen of the Transvaal.
In 1927, the Cape Town city council banned beauty contest as they felt that they are undignified and not for the good of the city.

In 1930 Molly LAMONT, a dancing teacher from Scottburgh, won the Outspan Film Candidate competition. Her prize was a holiday in England and a film test at Elstree Studios. She went on to act in more than 50 films in England and the USA.

In 1938, the Sunday Express held a Marlene Dietrich look-alike national contest, which was won by Thelma Fairlie of Kensington, Johannesburg. In 1963, Thelma met Marlene Dietrich during her visit to South Africa.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, there were many Wool Queen contests across the country. Local winners went on to regional and provincial contests, from which one girl would become the overall winner. However, the final stage was never reached. Doreen O'Neill was Midlands Wool Queen in 1939, but only four more regional queens were chosen and when World War II broke out, the contest was abandoned.

After the war, the Wool Board partnered with Photo News magazine and Metro Goldwyn Meyer Films to create a national Meet the Stars contest. The winner was to be known as Miss South Africa 1948. Forty-nine finalists spent a week in Johannesburg. General SMUTS, then Prime Minister, crowned Avelyn MACASKILL of Bloemfontein as winner at the Johannesburg City Hall. Her prize included a trip to Hollywood as the guest of MGM, visits to New York, Holland, London, Paris and Canada, and a diamond ring.

A few days before Avelyn's crowning, Stage & Cinema ran a readers' contest which gave the winner an entry in Universal International's Hollywood Beauty Contest. June FULTON of Durban won. Her prize included a six-month film contract and being photographed with film stars.

In 1944 Avelyn MaCASKILL won a beauty pageant. In 1949, Wynona CHEYNEY won a beauty pageant and reigned from 1949 to 1951.
Before the 1950s, most of the larger contests were organised by magazines such as Stage & Cinema, South Africa Pictorial and Outspan, or by newspapers, often in partnership with African Consolidated Theatres. Women submitted a photo and from these photos finalists would be chosen and published. The readers would vote for their favourite.

Beauty contests were racially segretated until the late 1970s. In the 1950s, Drum magazine, aimed at black readers, started running model and beauty contests. Later on a Miss Black South Africa pageant was held. Other popular contests were organised by the Ellerines furniture chain, and football associations.

In 1952, Outspan magazine and African Consolidated Theatres started a contest to find an entrant for the first Miss Universe pageant that year. Catherine HIGGINS, a short-hand typist from Johannesburg, wanted to become an actress. She entered the contest and won, taking her to Long Beach, California, where she was placed 7th and voted by the other contestants as Miss Friendly Spirit.

In 1956, Piet BEUKES, editor of Die Landstem, obtained the right to send a South African representative to the Miss World pageant in London. In 1960, the Miss Universe pageant in Miami Beach, Florida, and the Miss International Beauty pageant in Long Beach, California, also gave Die Landstem the right to enter a South African representative. Die Landstem, in partnership with the Sunday Times, arranged the contests for the Miss World entrant. The Sunday Express was in the partnership to choose the entrant for Miss Universe.

Beauty competitions were held in Margate where Miss Hibiscus was chosen and entered in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Hibiscus organisers re-named their title to Miss Protea in 1968.

The history of the Miss South Africa contest

The first official Miss South Africa contest was held in 1956. This was after the Afrikaans newspaper, Die Landstem, acquired the rights to enter someone in the Miss World pageant in London. Together with the Sunday Times, a South African English newspaper, they organised the first official Miss South Africa contest. It wasn't a pageant yet as entrants only sent in their photos and the newspaper readers voted for their favourites. The finalists' photos were again published and readers selected Miss South Africa. There was no crowning ceremony.

In 1964 and 1965, the selection system changed. The finalists and the winner were selected by the newspapers' editorial staff. In 1966 and 1967 the finalists were still selected by the newspapers, but the winners were selected by the readers.

In 1968, Die Landstem closed down and the Sunday Times took over the contest, bringing in another Afrikaans newspaper, Dagbreek. The selection process in 1968 still saw the finalists selected from photos but the winner was selected by a panel of celebrity judges meeting in Johannesburg.
The selection process changed again in 1970. Regional pageants were held and the regional winners appeared before celebrity judges in Johannesburg. The winner and runner-up were announced at a cocktail party in Johannesburg, after being announced in the newspapers. In 1972, the Miss South Africa contest became a pageant and Stephanie REINECKE was crowned in front of a live audience in the Johannesburg City Hall.
Regional pageants were not held in 1975. The finalists were selected after nationwide auditions. This system remained in place until 1994.

In 1978, the Miss South Africa pageant was opened to all races.
In 1994, Doreen MORRIS, a former M-Net presenter, went into partnership with Sun International to run the Miss South Africa pageant, after Rapport and the Sunday Times withdrew due to political interference from the ANC's Youth League. Sun International took full ownership of the pageant in 2000.

In the spotlight

Beauty pageants, especially Miss South Africa, crown came with many opportunities and most of the winners made good use of them. After their reigns, many beauty queens launched busy careers, while others found domestic life pleasing. Here we take a look at what happened to some of them.

Mavis Alexander

In October 1925, a Cape Town newspaper, the Argus, sponsored a beauty contest. Close to 800 contestants entered by sending in their photos which went on public display. On the 14 November the winner was crowned in the Tivoli Theatre in Cape Town.
Mavis ALEXANDER, a school teacher from Montagu won. Her prizes included a cheque for 25 guineas, theatre seats, a camera, a hat, a dress, silk stockings, shoes, an umbrella, lunch for six people for a week, a perm, a one-seater sofa, a watch, dance lessons, and a photo frame for her winning photo. She was also driven around Cape Town in the car which the Prince of Wales had used in Cape Town shortly before the contest.
Mavis later moved to the Strand, where her mother lived. She went back to teaching and spent 26 years teaching at Somerset West Primary. After her mother's death in 1950, she married a life-long friend, Bertie MITTEN. A few years later Bertie passed away. Mavis became involved in charity work and the Methodist church in Strand. In her will she left money to the Rotarary Club. In 1994, the Rotary Anns of the Strand, erected a clock in Beach Road in her memory. A bronze plate has the following inscription: "Tyd vir vrede, time for peace, Ixesha Ngo Xola. A gift to the community from Strand Rotary Anns. In memory of Mavis Mitton. 1994

Avelyn Macaskill

After her reign, Avelyn went to London where she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for two years. When she returned to Bloemfontein, she married businessman Jannie WESSELS and they had three children. After Jannie's death, she married Ronnie VAN REENEN. They moved to Cape Town in 1983, where they were involved with the Capab Opera Chorus and the Philharmonic Choir. In 1994, they bought an apartment in Spain 's Costa del Sol, and divide their time between Cape Town and Spain. Avelyn enjoys working in her gardens and painting in oils.
Winnie Comyns

Winifred (Winnie) Nora Mary Florence COMYNS married Egmar WESEMANN, but was divorced in 1951.

June Fulton

After returning from her prize trip to California, June met Antony BURTON from London. They got married and had two daughters. The family lived in Portugal for 11 years, where June ran a modelling school. They moved to England, where June died of cancer in 1990. June had acting roles in The Gal Who Took the West (1949) as a dance hall girl, and in Yes Sir That's My Baby (1949) as Mrs. Koslowski.

Catherine Edwina Higgins

Catherine became a successful model in South Africa. She was known for her diamond smile, as she had a diamond embedded in one of her front teeth. She was the daughter of James Arthur HIGGINS and Christopholina Edina VAN RENSBURG (MHG reference 10845/71, her father's death notice). She had an aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs F.C. TOWNSEND who lived at 86 Moore Street, East London, in 1952. This was her mother's sister. Catherine's uncle on her mother's side, Freddie VAN RENSBURG, was a national professional snooker and billiards champion. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 88.

Ingrid Mills

Now Ingrid DE HAAST, she is a successful glass artist in Somerset West, after starting out as a potter more than 20 years ago. She attended classes in Corning, USA, as well as in Oregon. The former Miss South Africa 1953 also had a role in a Hollywood film. Ingrid was crowned in Johannesburg in May 1953. Her runner-up was Una DE BEER (Miss East London). Ingrid was Miss Salisbury, and was born in East London.

Penny Anne Coelen

Penelope Anne was born in Shepperton, Middlesex, on April 15, 1939, she lived in the Cape, in Witbank, Pretoria, Swaziland, Benoni and Estcourt before the family finally settled in Durban.  When she won Miss World in 1958, it was the 8th Miss World pageant and had 22 contestants. Penny was an 18-year-old secretary. After her reign, she tried acting in Hollywood with James GARNER's help, but failed her screen test. After returning to South Africa, she married her first love, Michael REY, whom she met when she was 16. Michael was a suger-cane farmer at Umhlali, outside Durban.
They had five sons – Michael, Jean-Paul, Dominic, Nicholas and Christopher. Penny ran a beauty salon and gave lectures. She used to do promotional work, marketing and sales for American Airlines. In 1991, the ATKV awarded her a Vrou vir Vroue award for her involvement in charity and environmental work. Penny has her own clothing range, and endorsed beauty products. Her hobbies include gardening, painting, and learning languages.

Anneline Kriel

In November 1974, Helen Morgan, Miss UK, was crowned Miss World. Four days later, it was discovered that she was an unmarried mother and the title was passed on to the runner-up, Anneline KRIEL (19). She was born in Witbank on 28 July 1955 to Johannes (Hannes) and Marie. Her father passed away in Pretoria in November 1997. Anneline's siblings are Renette and Ernst. Renette was married to Graham McKENZIE, an Australian cricketer.

Anneline was Joolkoningin at Tukkies. She was Miss Northern Transvaal when she won Miss South Africa. After her Miss World reign she appeared in films (she studied drama at the University of Pretoria), including Someone Like You (1978), alongside Hans STRYDOM; Kill and Kill Again (1981), alongside James RYAN, Bill FLYNN and Ken GAMPU; and Reason to Die, alongside Arnold VOSLOO. She also had a role in the TV series, Ballade van 'n Enkeling. In 1986 she acted in the play, The Marriage Go Round.

In 1976, a scandal erupted when her naked pictures appeared in the Sunday Times. Ray HILLIGEN, a bodybuilder, had taken them while Anneline was sunbathing next to his pool.

Anneline also tried her hand at singing, releasing a record, He took off my romeos, in 1981. At the age of 39, she posed for Playboy magazine, draped in the new South African flag.
When she won Miss World she was dating fellow student Jacques MALAN but the relationship did not stand the strain. A relationship with Richard LORING, the singer, followed. He recorded a song for her, called Sweet Anneline. Another short relationship followed with the wealthy Italian baron and industrialist, Rudolf PARISI. In 1979 she dated Henk PISTORIUS of Johannesburg for awhile. Anneline married three times – first to Sol KERZNER, hotel magnate, in 1980 in the Randburg magistrate's office (they divorced in 1985). On 10 October 1989 she married Philip TUCKER, a show jumper, but they divorced in 1993. They had two children, Tayla and Whitney. On 29 March 1996, she married current husband, Peter BACON (Sun International executive). They live in Cape Town where she is involved with charities such as Child Welfare and the Cancer and Heart Foundations. Her business interests include marketing her clothing range her beauty products and perfumes.

Margaret Gardiner

Margaret, born in Woodstock, was 15 when she was discoverd as a model by the then Rapport photographer Bernard JORDAAN. In 1978 she was crowned as Miss RSA. Later that year she won the Miss Universe pageant in Acapulco, Mexico, becoming the first African winner, and the only South African winner to date. Her mother, Dawn, lives in Table View. Her father passed away in 2000. Her sister, Sandy BRONKHORST, lives in Klerksdorp. Sandy was a finalist in the 1976 Miss South Africa pageant.
Margaret married André NEL, son of Kay, in Cape Town on 14 February 1987 at St. George's Cathedral. He is a medical researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles, where the couple have lived since 1989.
Margaret has faced some serious health issues. She had TB as a child. In 1993 she was close to death after suffering an ectopic pregnancy. In January 1995 she gave birth to Brandon. He was christened at St. George's Cathedral in 1996. Margaret had breast cancer in 1998.
She has a degree in psychology from Charleston College in South Carolina. In the early 1990s she took small roles in a TV series, a film and in theatre plays. In 1994 she published a book for aspiring beauty queens, Die wenpad vir modelle en skoonheidskoninginne, published by Human & Rousseau.
She is now a freelance journalist and TV reporter, and a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Margaret often reports for the SABC show, Top Billing. Her articles regularly appear in the You, Huisgenoot and TVPlus magazines.

Norma Vorster

Later changed her surname to FOSTER and went on to make TV documentaries.

Mitzi Stander
Mitsianna (Mitzi) died in a car accident while driving her sports car in Victory Park, Johannesburg, on 18 June 1973. She was married to David Johannes FOURIE at the time (her death notice: MHG 6664/73).

Denise Muir
She died at her home in Sandton in 1992.

Monica Fairall
Monica became a radio presenter in Durban.

Yvonne Hulley
Her father served in the South African Air Force. Her parents retired to Hermanus where they had a restaurant.

Nickey Carras
She married Bobby VERWEY, the pro golfer.

Ellen Peters

She was Miss Africa South 1973 and placed in the final 15. In 1976, she entered Miss RSA and came second. Afterwards she went to live in Greece and met Israeli-born Naaman SKOLNIK, a businessman. She converted to Judaism and was married in Israel. They live in Hertzelia Pituach, where Ellen is an Orthodox Jew. (see picture)

Kazeka Ntantala
It's not everyone that hits the headlines thirty years after their moment of glory, but in the case of former Miss South Africa, Kazeka Somhlahlo (nee Ntantala) this is exactly what happened. BARBARA HOLLANDS recently caught up with her. Kazeka, of Idutywa then but now living in Amalinda, won the Miss South Africa 1970 pageant in Umtata, which was under the auspices of the South African Non-White Cultural Syndicate. Tandiswa BAM of Umtata was second. Kazeka's prize included cosmetics from Elida Gibbs, a bedroom suite, a radio display cabinet and clothing vouchers. The main prize of a trip to the USA was cancelled because the organisers ran out of money. She was a teacher in Idutywa. She endorsed Karoo Cream in magazines. In 1972 she was in a car crash near Willowvale, which left her with facial scars. Kazeka ended up marrying the social worker who was driving that night and they had two children. After marriage she taught in Alice and later worked for an insurance company before joining Zingisa Educational Project where she is still a regional co-ordinator.

Liz Bunting
In 1977, Liz was the first non-white contestant to place in the Miss South Africa pageant.

Ellen Liebenberg
Ellen was until recently the wife of Jannie Engelbrecht , former Springbok rugby player and owner of Rust en Vrede. She was Miss Matieland 1962. In 1963 she got engaged to Jannie in Sea Point and they went on to have three children – Jean, Angeline and Judy (married to GRAAFF). They met during her student days at the University of Stellenbosch. Ellen left her studies in 1963 shortly before her wedding, to represent South Africa at the Miss Universe pageant in Miami. Ellen was Miss South West Africa, which made her an automatic finalist in the Miss South Africa contest. The Engelbrecht family was broken up recently when Jannie divorced Ellen, and a court case followed whch involved the farm Rust en Vrede.

Vera Johns
Vera married the All Black rugby player, Alan SUTHERLAND. They have a horse stud farm, Somerset, near Mooi River. She has a rose named after her.

Wilma van der Bijl
She was a qualified pharmacist when she won the crown. She married the Greek businessman, Ari TAPANLIS, owner of a toy company. In 1995 Wilma's first child passed away two days after being born.

Yolanda Klopperss
She married Walter WARD, a doctor, and had a stormy marriage.

Karin Sickel
Karin married show jumper Errol WUCHERPFENNIG.

Odette Scrooby
She married Willie JOUBERT and they owned a nature reserve near Warmbaths for a while. Her sister, Olivia, was runner-up in Miss South Africa 1990.

Leanne Hosking
Leanne married an Australian cricketer, Mike HAYSMAN.

Letitia Snyman
She converted to Judaism in 1991 before marrying businessman Geoffrey RUBENSTEIN.

Andrea Steltzer
She owns a modelling agency in Edenvale. She is the only Miss South Africa to represent another country in the Miss World contest. In 1989, she won the Miss Germany contest as she was of German origin and still had a German passport. In 2002 she was engaged to the Springbok rugby player, James DALTON. Tat same year, a rose was named after her at the Bloemfontein Rose Show.

Sandy McCormack
She married businessman Richard BARKHUIZEN and lived in Knysna.

Janine Botbyl
She has a son and lives in Johannesburg.

Diana Tilden-Davis
Her grandmother was Thelma Fairlie, who was also a beauty queen. Older sister Janine BOTBYL won Miss South Africa 1988, and her sister Leanne was a finalist in 1982. Diana had a role in the horror film Howling IV and the action adventure Captive Rage. While doing a documentary in the Okavango, Diana met Chris Kruger. They were married at the Momba camp. They live in Maun in their safari business.

Michelle Bruce
She has a son and lives in Cape Town. Some of her business ventures included edible underwear and marketing condoms.

Suzette Van der Merwe
She was married to Greg VOGT, but later divorced.

Amy Kleyhans
Amy was the first Coloured woman to wear the Miss South Africa crown. Amy married a New Zealander, businessman Leighton CURD. The couple have a son, Thomas. She is involved in educational ventures.

Jacqui Mofokeng
Jacqui was the first black woman to win Miss South Africa. She was nominated by the ANC in the elections but she declined. In 1994 Jacqui appeared in the film, A White Man in Africa, in the role of Hazel, an illiterate rural woman who has a relationship with an Australian diplomat. Today she is involved with human resources and production companies, and serves on the boards of several companies.

Basetsane Makgalemele
Basetsane was a popular beauty queen. She was born and bred in Soweto. After her reign she became a TV presenter. She went on to become a shareholder in Tswelopele, the company that produces Top Billing. She has two older sisters, Lerato and Johanna, and a younger brother, Abbey. Her parents are Philip and Beatrice. She is married to Radio Metro station manager Romeo Khumalo and has a son, Nkosinathi.

Peggy Sue Khumalo
Peggy Sue (21) was Miss South Africa 1996. Five days afer her crowning, it was discovered that she was Peggy Priscilla Erasmus (24) and had changed her name first to Peggy Priscilla Khumalo and subsequently to Nonhlanhla Peggy-Sue Khumalo, as was publised in the Government Gazette on 04 April 1996. She was born in Newcastle on 07 December 1972 to Jumaima Khumalo and James Erasmus, a coloured or white farmworker. She was raised by her white grandmother, Afrikaans-speaking Cornelia Susanna Dunn. She attended Chelmsford, a coloured school in Newcastle, and matriculated from Haythorne High School in Pietermaritzburg. Peggy caused a public outcry when she said that she would slaughter a goat and several cows if she won Miss Universe or Miss World. After establishing her own PR company she went to study further in the UK, where she is a fund manager for Investec.

Kerishnie Naicker
Kerishnie had an honours degree and planned to open her own pharmacy. She was the first Indian woman to wear the crown. She grew up in Reservoir Hills, Durban, with her parents Amra and Joey, and two siblings. After obtaining a first class Matric, Kerishnie enrolled for a Bachelors Degree in Pharmacy, and later a Masters in Pharmacy. During her final year, her father passed away from a heart attack. He was a self-employed businessman and Kerishnie got involved in the family's business interests. In 1997, whilst practicing as a pharmacist, Kerishnie entered the Miss South Africa pageant and won. She participated in both Miss Universe and Miss World. Kerishnie is involved in many business ventures, health research, is a television presenter, producer, master of ceremonies and public speaker. She helped secure funding for the building of 12 community health clinics, and played a key role in getting the Chatsworth Youth Centre up. She is also director of her own company, KJN and Associates, a consultancy facilitating corporate social investment projects.
Jo-Ann Strauss
Now a TV presenter, businesswoman and speaker, Jo-Ann was 19 when she won Miss South Africa in 2000. She started presenting the magazine programme Pasella in the same year, and joined Top Billing in June 2005. She speaks English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. Jo-Ann was head-girl at Hottentots Holland High School in 1998. She graduated from Stellenbosch University with a B.Comm (Law) degree. In July 2002, Jo-Ann participated in the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show to raise R2 000 000 for five children's charities. She finished in second place. She has her own communications company.

Heather Hamilton
Heather has a Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Kwazulu-Natal. She became a fund manager and joined a prominent asset management firm working as an investment consultant. In 1994 she won the South Africa Junior Equitation championships. Her brother was instrumental in exposing canned lion hunting.

Sonia Raciti
One of Sonia Raciti's dreams is to release her own CD. She was a member of the National Youth Choir for three years, having started singing at 13. Sonia, from Estcourt, studied for a higher diploma in education at Edgewood College of Education.

Joan Ramagoshi
Miss South Africa 2003 was rcently marred to Jeff. Khanyisile Mbau. She was a part-time model from Pretoria. Joan speaks five languages: English, Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, Tswana, and Zulu. After completing a PR diploma, she started her own PR agency.

Claudia Henkel
Claudia was a second-year top law student at the University of Pretoria when she entered the Miss South Africa pageant. She has two sisters, Anica and Nicola. Her father Irmin is an ear, nose and throat surgeon, and mom Linda looked after the family home in Pretoria East. Claudia attended Pretoria Girls High and was a finalist in a model search competition in Matric. She spent two months in Italy and finished Matric through correspondence while modelling. Claudia could not represent the country at Miss World in Sanya, China, as it was held on the same night as the Miss South Africa finals in Sun City. Her runner-up, Dhiveja Sundrun, was sent in her place.

Dhiveja Sundrum
She represented South Africa at the Miss World pageant in 2005. Dhiveja was a fifth-year University of Cape Town medical student. She lives in Gardens, Cape Town. The Miss World competition was the third pageant she'd entered. Her first one was Rapport's Miss Cape Peninsula in 2004, which gave her automatic entry into the Miss South Africa pageant. She's appeared in TV ads and fashion catalogues, and was a TV presenter. Her father Dayalan is an orthodontist and mom Veena is a former teacher.
South Africans in the Miss World pageant
Miss South Africa has done well in the Miss World pageant, with Penny (1958) and Anneline (1974) taking the top prize.

Politics got involved and from 1978 to 1991, Miss South Africa was barred from Miss World. In 1970 a non-white South African was chosen to compete in Miss World and was given the title of Miss Africa South. This continued until South Africa was expelled from Miss World after the 1977 pageant.

In 1975, Vera JOHNS was not allowed to take part in the Miss World as she did not meet the pageant's residency requirements. She had been Miss Rhodesia in 1972 and had not lived in South Africa for 5 years. Her first runner-up, Crystal Cooper, refused to enter Miss World unless she was awarded the Miss South Africa title and prizes.

The second runner-up, Rhoda Rademeyer, competed at Miss World 1975 and was finished in the top 15. In 1976, the presence of a black Miss Africa South and a white Miss South Africa, caused 9 countries to withdraw their contestants in protest against South Africa's apartheid system. In 1977 ten countries withdrew in protest against the presence of a white Miss South Africa. After 1977, Miss World organizers did not accept South African contestants until 1991, with the end of apartheid. Diana TILDEN-DAVIES represented South Africa at the 1991 Miss World contest, ending the ban.
From 1992 to 1995, and 2001, the pageant was held at Sun City, South Africa. In 2002, Vanessa CARREIRA boycotted the pageant which was held in Nigeria, in protest against the Amina Lawal affair. Claire Sabbagha, runner-up, was sent as a replacement when the pageant moved to London. This led to confusion as the Miss World organisers said that at 25, Claire was too old. Karen Lourens (19), Miss Junior Africa, of Roodepoort, was also sent in as a replacement but after two days she was sent home without being allowed to participate.

Contestants at the Miss World Pageant

1957: Adele KRUGER, third
1958: Penelope Anne COELEN won the title
1959: Moya MEAKER, semi-finalist
1960: Denise MUIR, third
1961: Yvonne Brenda HULLEY, semi-finalist
1962: Yvonne Maryann FICKER, fourth
1963: Louise CROUS
1964: Vedra Karamitas
1965: Carrol Adele Davis
1966: Joan (Johanna) CARTER, semi-finalist
1967: Disa DUIVESTEIN, semi-finalist
1968: Mitsianna (Mitzi) Stander
1969: Linda Meryl COLLET, sixth
1970: Pearl Gladys JANSEN (Miss Africa South), second, and Jillian Elizabeth JESSUP (Miss South Africa) fifth
1971: Monica FAIRALL, semi-finalist, and Gaily Ryan (Miss Africa South)
1972: Stephanie Elizabeth REINECKE, semi-finalist, and Cynthia Shange (Miss Africa South)
1973: Shelley LATHAM (Miss South Africa), fifth, and Ellen PETERS (Miss Africa South), semi-finalist
1974: Anneline KRIEL won the tile, and Evelyn Peggy WILLIAMS (Miss Africa South), semi-finalist
1975: Rhoda RADEMEYER, semi-finalist, and Lydia Gloria Johnstone (Miss Africa South)
1976: Veronica Rozette Kuki Matsepe (Miss Africa South) and Lynn Massyn
1977: Vanessa Wannenburg (Miss South Africa)
1991: Diana TILDEN-DAVIS, third
1992: Amy KLEINHANS, fifth
1993: Palesa Jacqueline (Jacqui) MOFOKENG, second
1994: Basetsane Julia MAKGALEMELE, second
1995: Bernalee DANIEL, semi-finalist
1996: Peggy-Sue KHUMALO, semi-finalist
1997: Jessica MOTAUNG, third
1998: Kerishnie NAICKER, fifth
1999: Sonia RACITI, third
2000: Heather Joy HAMILTON
2001: Jo-Ann Cindy STRAUSS, semi-finalist
2002: Boycotted the pageant in Nigeria, but then joined in London
2003: Cindy Nell
2004: Joan Kwena Ramagoshi
2005: Dhiveja Sundrum, semi-finalist

South Africans in the Miss Universe pageant

The Miss Universe pageant has been held annually since 1952. It was started by the Californian clothing company Pacific Mills to showcase its Catalina swimwear brand. In 1996 Donald Trump acquired ownership of the pageant. Various beauty contests had the right to send a South African representative to Miss Universe.

In 1952 the winner of the Miss South Africa (Universe) contest represented South Africa. In May 1952, Catherine HIGGINS, Miss Johannesburg, represented South Africa. Her runners-up were Jean BROWNLEE (Miss Cape Town), Stella COUTTS (Miss Durban) and Helena VAN DER LINDE (Miss East London). In 1953 the winner of Miss Golden Jubilee competed in Miss Universe.

From 1960 until 1967, the South African representative for Miss Universe was elected at the Hibiscus Queen contest in Margate. The contest existed prior to 1960 and still continues today. From 1969 to 1974 South Africa did not take part in the Miss Universe pageant. In 1975, Rapport, an Afrikaans newspaper, acquired the rights to send a representative to the Miss Universe pageant. They sponsored the Miss RSA regional pageant and the winner went to Miss Universe. Gail Anthony was selected to represent South Africa in 1975. In 1978 the Miss RSA pageant became a national pageant. Jenny KAY, Miss RSA 1980, did not compete at Miss Universe 1980 in Seoul as the Korean government did not recognise the government of South Africa and refused to grant her a visa.

In 1982 the newspaper changed the name Miss RSA to Miss South Africa. This followed after a dispute about the national title and international participation. In 1982 and 1984, the dispute led to two beauty pageants – each sponsored by a Sunday paper – Rapport, and the Sunday Times, an English paper. Rapport argued that as the only pageant to have entry to an international pageant, their winner should be known as Miss South Africa. This is why there are two Miss South Africas in 1982 and 1984. In 1985, the newspapers agreed to join forces and one Miss South Africa pageant was held.

Miss South Africa did not compete in Miss Universe from 1985 to 1994. In 1985, Andrea Steltzer was not allowed to compete in the pageant. Andrea went on to become Miss Germany 1988 and was a semi-finalist in the 1989 Miss Universe pageant. As Miss Germany 1988 she was not allowed to enter Miss World because of her South African background.

In 1995, South Africa was again allowed to participate in the Miss Universe pageant. A new title, Miss Universe South Africa, was created but was discontinued after the 1997 pageant, as the Miss South Africa organisation acquired the right to send their winner to the Miss Universe pageant. Miss South Africa now represents South Africa in both international pageants.

Contestants at the Miss Universe Pageant

1952: Catherine Edwina Higgins, semi-finalist
1953: Ingrid Rita Mills, semi-finalist
1954-1959: no entry
1960: Nicolette Joan Caras
1961: Marina Christelis
1962: Lynette Gamble
1963: Ellen Leibenberg, semi-finalist
1964: Gail Robinson
1965: Veronika Edelgarda Hilda Prigge, semi-finalist
1966: Lynn Carol De Jager
1967: Windley Ballenden
1968: Monica Fairall
1969-1974: no entry
1975: Gail Anthony
1976: Cynthia Classen
1977: Glynis Dorothea Fester
1978: Margaret Gardiner, winner
1979: Veronika Wilson, semi-finalist and 2nd runner-up for Best National Costume
1980: no entry
1981: Daniela Di Paolo
1982: Odette Octavia Scrooby
1983: Leanne Beverly Hosking
1984: Leticia Snyman, runner-up
1985: Andrea Steltzer did not compete
1986-1994: no entry
1995: Augustine Masilela, semi-finalist
1996: Carol Anne Becker
1997: Mbali Gasa
1998: Kerishnie Naicker, semi-finalist
1999: Sonia Raciti, third
2000: Heather Joy Hamilton, semi-finalist
2001: Jo-Ann Cindy Strauss
2002: Vanessa Do Ceu Carreira
2003: Cindy Nell, third
2004: Joan Ramagoshi
Miss Africa South
The Miss Africa South competition, for non-white women, was first organised in 1970, with the winner taking part in the Miss World pageant.
Winners:
1970: Pearl Jansen
1971: Gaily Ryan
1972: Cynthia Shange
1973: Ellen Peters
1974: Evelyn Williams
1975: Lydia Johnstone
Miss International Beauty Winners:
1960 Nona Sheriff
1961 Dina Robbertse
1962 Aletta Strydom
1963 Madie Claassen
1964 Lorraine Mason
1965 Dianne Webster
1966 Dawn Duff-Gray
1967 Mary Macdonald

Sources:

Naspers newspapers
Generations – A South African genealogy newsletter, Vol. 3, Iss. 19
http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/world.htm
http://www.pageantopolis.com/international/universe.htm
http://www.geocities.com/southafricanbeauties/
http://www.jimmyspageantpage.com/sa.html
http://www.golive.co.za/52/

Written by Anne Lehmkuhl

Biography of Ruda Wahl

Ruda was born on 18 November 1953 in Hartswater in the Northern Cape and was educated at Hartswater Primary School, Parow Central Primary, Keimoes High School and Upington High School, where she spent her final school years as a boarder. After matriculating she entered the Civil Defence College in George where she undertook voluntary military service for a year in one of the first women's army camps in South Africa.

In November 1977, she married JP Landman and begun her career as a TV newsreader in 1983. Her hobbies include r eading, movies, spending time with friends over good wine and good food and she, like many other South African women, belongs to a monthly book club. Ruda has one son Johannes Petrus who is 20 years old.

Ruda has few memories of her grandparents as most of them died when she was small. She remembers: "Oupa Gert" was my father and Oupa Wahl, his father, "Oupa Jonnie" as we called him, lived with us when I was little. He died when I was four. Unfortunately I don't remember much about him, but my dad talked about his family of course – I knew most of them, and so did my mum.

Oupa Wahl fought in the Anglo-Boer War as a young man and the legend was that he took so many Grandpa headache powders that his sleeping spot was surrounded by little pink papers in the morning. He also fought in the Rebellion – one of his sons (my uncle, my father's brother) was called Manie Maritz Wahl after General Manie Maritz.

Do you have any family heirlooms that belonged to your ancestors?

I have a handcarved wooden jewellery box. Written on the side is "From S van der Merwe T Miss G/T/C (very ornate) Verster Aandenking uit Tokai 1903". That would mean the jail after the Anglo Boer War. I don't know who made it, probably Schalk Willem Jacobus van der Merwe, my mother's grandfather. But who is the mystery Miss Verster? In 1903 he was a married man with children! And the jewellery box is in our family, i.e. his daughter inherited it. My brother has a hand-tied shawl and a little wooden chest from the same period.

Did any of your family members make an impact in your life and why?

I only knew my mother's father, Andries Petrus Viljoen. I lived with him and his sister (his wife died in childbirth in 1933) for a few months when I was nine, and we often visited them for holidays before and after that. He was "Oudad", devoted to his newspaper every evening, quietly comfortable with the neighbours we shared evening with. I was probably more affected by the place, the desert heat and simplicity, than by specific people.

What aspect of you family's history has fascinated or interested you the most?

The War and the Rebellion. I wish I could have talked to my grandfather about that.

Do you have a personal motto which you live by?

From Byron Katie: What is, is. Don't resist what is; don't waste energy on how other people should behave. Accept what is, and decide how you want to respond to it.

Memoirs of the Wahl Family

Stofvlei Farm, in the Magisterial District of Springbok, is where Gert Kotze Wahl was born. The old farm had a petrol pump and a post office. There were three buildings on the farm which included the house, the shop and about 300 metres west from the house was a third tin cottage. According to family legend Grandmother Gerrie's family (the Kotze's – had "money"). Initially grandmother Gerrie was the postmaster, and later it was Grandfather John. Grandpa John, who was General Maritz's attendant, promised him that he would name his next son after the General, and so the Manie Maritz name was brought into the Wahl family on 21 November 1914.

Naturally they were pro-German. Grandfather made a knives/forks bowl from wood in the Johannesburg Jail, as well as a tray. On the bowl it says: "Aan mijn lieve Vrouw van John, Johannesburg Tronk 28 Oktober 1915".

The Wahl's enjoyed playing Bridge and their ancestors were wagon makers. Grandfather John was an Elder in the N.G. Kerk in Loeriesfontein his entire life and the middle services, in-between Holy Communion, was always held on Stofvlei farm.

According to grandchild, Andries Wahl: "We knew grandfather as "Oupa Wahl" and all the other people I ever heard talking to or of him, used the diminutive – or in Afrikaans pronounced with a long "ô", or in English pronounced as "Johnny". During my stay in Keimoes I also managed an agency from the office in Pofadder, and there I dealt with 5 or 6 people who knew him. All of them added the "ie/y". A guy who rebelled against the English didn't want to be "John" if his name was "Adam Johannes".

Many of the area's children went to school at Nuwerus. The school lorry's destination, which was the transport of the area's schoolchildren to and from Nuwerus, was Stofvlei. Both Grandma and Grandpa Wahl's graves are in Stofvlei.

Grandfather Johnie had two sisters and as the family story goes there were two Wahl's that came from Germany. The one Wahl settled himself in Paarl and became Afrikaans and the other in Cape Town who became English – this part of the family included the well-known optometrist.

Grandfather Wahl's one sister married an Englishman, and grandfather never spoke to her again after that – remember it was the time of the Anglo-Boer War. I knew the other sister. She was Aunt Bettie Bodley and lived in Paarl. She had three daughters. Aunt Bettie's husband was Tom Boyley, but he died very young. The daughters were Hettie (her husband was a Van der Westhuizen, teacher at Boys High in Paarl), Magdaleen – married to a Hugo (English pronunciation), and Elise. Elise was a famous artist, especially for her sketches of wild flowers. She was married to Apie van Wyk, also an artist.

Grandfather John was a dignified, strict man with a good sense of humour who could always tell a good story – a trait that goes through all the Wahl's

Behind the scenes

Ruda Landman's birthplace in the dry and dusty town of Keimoes, in the Northern Cape, is a far cry from where her family's humble beginnings started in the lush and fertile valleys of Europe. From the Persecution of her family in France in the 1600's, her ancestry consists of a kaleidoscope of French refugees as well as Dutch and German Immigrants.

When the French Huguenots arrived at the Cape in 1688 as a closely linked group, in contrast to the Germans, they all lived together in Drakenstein, although they never constituted a completely united bloc; a number of Dutch farms were interspersed among them. Until May 1702 they had their own French minister, Pierre Simond, and until February 1723 a French reader and schoolmaster, Paul Roux. The Huguenots clung to their language for fifteen to twenty years; in 1703 only slightly more than one fifth of the adult French colonists were sufficiently conversant with Dutch to understand a sermon in Dutch properly, and many children as yet knew little or no Dutch at all. The joint opposition of the farmers toward W. A. van der Stel shortly afterwards brought the French more and more into contact with their Dutch neighbours; as a result of social intercourse and intermarriage they soon adopted the language and customs of their new country. Forty years after the arrival of the Huguenots, the French language had almost died out and Dutch was the preferred tongue.

In South Africa we are extremely lucky to have such superb and dedicated family historians, as well as exquisite records in our Archives, which begin prior to Jan Van Riebeeck landing at the Cape. Jan's diary of his voyage to South Africa is documented and stored in the Cape Town Archives.

This mammoth task of tracing Ruda's family tree in record time, was compiled to find out how far back the Wahl family and its branches can be traced as well as how many sets of grandparents can be found.  Click here to view Ruda's family tree.

The Wahl Family

Daniel Hendrik Wahl was born circa 1850 and research has proven that there is no legitimate documentation to prove his parentage. On the 17th February 1874, Daniel Hendrik applied for a special marriage license to marry Maria Catherina Reynecke.

Photographer of the Paarl: Daniel Hendrik Wahl's Insolvent Estate (In further documentation, and finding the Liquidation and Distribution account, it is noted that Daniel was known as the “Photographer of the Paarl and Wheelwright of Paarl” in 1883)

And in another image one section of the document refers to the surname as "de Wahl" and not "Wahl", which meant that one would now have to search under the many variants of including de Wahl, Waal and de Waal. Mr D.H Wahl's Insolvent Estate

Further documentation also mentions the "widow Reynecke" Elisabeth Wilhelmina Reynecke, which was his mother in law, as well as a Constant Wahl and Adam J Wahl who thus far cannot be linked to this immediate family as no parentage exists for Daniel. It is assumed that the two men mentioned are possibly brothers as they fit well with other documentation of the same period.

Unfortunately the common problem with variants of name spelling has been a classic example of the "brick wall" scenario, which has been encountered here thus the time limit on this research has been halted. The original Wahl Family whom Daniel Hendrik would have descended is (1) Johan(n) Christia(a)n Wahl, from Strelitz in Mecklenburg (Germany). Arrives here in 1752 as a soldier. Citizen in 1756. Married 10th September 1757 to Christina Gerrits, daughter of Herman Gerrits (2 children) or (2) Johan(n) Coenraad or Conrad Wahl, from Wildungen (Germany). Arrives here in 1774 as a soldier. Citizen in 1780. Died 15th October 1814. Married 12th November 1780 to Catharina Hilledonda van Dyk (7 children). Motto: Factis non verbis.

Most family pedigrees of this extent can take many years to complete and we at Ancestry24 have managed to go back 10 generations in two weeks.

A lineage and direct relation to South African actress Charlize Theron has also been illustrated and Ruda finds herself as the ½ 5th cousin to this Hollywood star.  Click here how Ruda and Charlize are related.

Jaques De Savoye

Jaques De Savoye (Ruda's 7 times great grandfather on her maternal side) was born in Ath, Belgium around 1636 and died in the Cape in October, 1717. He was a merchant and Cape free burgher and was the son of Jacques de Savoye and his wife, Jeanne van der Zee (Delamere, Desuslamer).

Jacques was a wealthy merchant in Ghent, Belgium, but his devotion to the Protestant religion led to his persecution by the Jesuits, and there was even an attempt to murder him. In 1687 he moved to the Netherlands and left for the Cape in the Oosterland on 29th January 1688. In addition to his wife, mother-in-law and three of his children, he was accompanied by the brothers Jean, Jacob and Daniel Nortier.

De Savoye soon became a leader among the French community at the Cape: he was one of the deputation which, on 28th November 1689, asked the Governor and Council of Policy for a separate congregation for the French refugees, and the following year he helped to administer the funds donated to the French refugees by the charity board of the church of Batavia. At various times he also served on the college of landdros and heemraden.

To begin with, Jacques farmed at Vrede-en-Lust at Simondium and in 1699 was also given Leeuwenvallei in the Wagenmakersvallei ( Wellington ), but settled at the Cape soon afterwards. He apparently experienced financial difficulties since in 1701 he owed the Cape church council 816 guilders and various people sued him for outstanding debts. In 1712 he described himself as being without means.

In March 1712 he left for the Netherlands in the Samson, accompanied by his wife and mother-in-law. He enrolled as a member of the Walloon congregation in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on 16th December 1714, but only four months later, on 20th April 1715, it was reported that he had returned to the Cape. There is, however no documentary proof of his presence neither at the Cape neither after 1715, nor in C.G. Botha's assertion that he died in October 1717.

De Savoye often clashed with other people. During the struggle of the free burghers against Wilhem Adriaen van der Stel, he was strongly opposed to the Governor and was imprisoned in the Castle for a time. He was also involved in a long-drawn-out dispute with the Rev. Pierre Simond, and he and Hercules des Pré went to court on several occasions to settle their differences.

He was married twice: first to Christiana du Pont and then to Marie Madeleine le Clercq of Tournai, Belgium, daughter of Philippe le Clercq and his wife, Antoinette Carnoy. Five children were born of the first marriage and three of the second. Three married daughters and a son remained behind at the Cape, as well as a son who was a junior merchant in the service of the V.O.C. and who died without leaving an heir.

Acknowledgements & Sources:

Ruda Landman
Gert Wahl
Keith Meintjies
National Archives Respository Cape Town
Dr Chris Theron
Janet Melville
Genealogical Institute in Stellenbosch
SAG Genealogies Volumes 1 – 13 www.gisa.org.za

Images Acknowledgement:

Images.co.za / Die Burger / Werner Hills; National Archives Respository Cape Town
Who's Who of Southern Africa (Ruda Landman)

Born on the 20th April 1864 in Graaff Reinet; died 10 March 1938 in Cape Town. Pianist; sister of Maurice Nathan.From 1880, Johanna and her sister Ellen were the accompanists of the Graaff Reinet Choral Society. After Maurice Nathan left Graaff Reinet (1883), Johanna became the conductor of the Graaff Reinet Musical and Literary Society. She eventually studied music in Germany and after her return lived first in Johannesburg and then in Cape Town. After her marriage she published a Bushveld waltz under the name of Johanna Schonland and dedicated it to Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, author of Jock of the Bushveld, and his wife.