A potentially hostile jury turned into the new best friend of actor
Hykie Berg when they voted decisively to award him the title of Ultimate Survivor and R1-million in the live finale of
Survivor South Africa: Maldives, in a chilly hangar at the Rand Airport on Thursday night.
Of the 10 jury members, seven gave Hykie their votes to go with the public vote, which counted as the 11th jury member, making it 8-3 to celeb Hykie over radar-dodger and pleb,
Letshego Moshoeu.
Going into the finale it seemed as though Letshego was a shoo-in for the mil - she hadn't upset anywhere near as many jury members as Hykie. But Hykie's former enemies, in particular
Harry Wiggins,
Tejan Pillay and
Sean September, decided that Hykie had played the better game, and were able to put any personal feelings aside in giving him their vote.
Sean claimed he had gone into the final tribal council expecting to give his vote to Letshego, but was persuaded to change his mind after hearing Hykie's answers to his questions.
Gameplayer Harry decided Hykie was the better player, saying he was "more strategic and social and better in the challenges, and always loyal to Bonnie".
Tejan came up with the astonishingly twisted logic that Hykie, being a public figure, would do more good with the money than Letshego. What a bunch of politically correct crap.
The others to vote for Hykie were fellow celebrities
Vanessa Haywood,
Roxy Burger,
MXO and his best friend on the island,
Bonnie Henna.
The only three votes Letshego received were from fellow plebs
Malusi Mbambo,
Simon Coetzer and
Alison de Chazal.
Hykie went berserk on hearing his name read out, whooping and hollering and dancing about like a madman. As one does, when one becomes an insta-millionaire.
The other big winner on the night was Alison, who finally received the keys to her brand new car. We hope there wasn't a black panther in the boot.
Look out for the after-party snaps and gossip, coming up early next week.
Happy with the outcome?