21-year-old student Marilyn Ramos was crowned Miss South Africa 2012 at the Sun City Superbowl on Sunday night (9 December 2012).
The title of Second Princess went to 24-year-old marketing manager Pearl Nxele and 23-year-old lawyer Stacey Webb took the title of First Princess.
While the judges regarded the three of them as royalty, the contestants preferred 20-year-old Capetonian Danelle de Wet who won the title of Miss Congeniality:
The ceremony aired live on Mzansi Magic and started by following the 12 finalists into the dressing room in their final moments just before the ceremony. There was no red carpet coverage this time round - which turned out to be a good thing.
Celebrities on the red carpet can easily upstage the finalists and would definitely have done so this year when it came to the evening gowns. The gowns were designed by Gideon and they all looked the same, with a flicker of variety here and there.
Mirror images of each other.
The final 12 could have improved them by adding a lot more personality to their struts and walks but the gowns themselves should have been more dynamic too. As a result the gowns take third place in our Top 3 lowlights of the night.
Toya Delazy comes in second for delivering yet another cringeworthy live performance #IdolsFlashback. As sacrilegious as it is - she needs to lip synch!
Top of the lowlight list: Jo-Ann Strauss for interrupting other people's opinions with her own. She was stationed in the fashion box, interviewing celebrities and fashion fundis and when she asked them a question she ended up answering instead.
Worst hit was Chu Suwannapha, Fashion Director for You/Huisgenoot. He started saying that he thought that the finalists didn't bring any attitude to the evening gowns - which was true.
Wrong thing to say. Jo-Ann cut him off and turned him into a wallflower.
Our highlights of the evening included: the swimwear catwalk, Zakes Bantwini's accompanying dance moves, the prominence of Zwai and Loyiso Bala's brother Phelo and the question posed to each of the final five: "What's the most underrated thing about South Africa?"
Here's a video featuring Marilyn's answer to the question as well as her other main moments during the show including the instant of her win: