Mr SA organisers say racism claims are 'completely false' as Mzansi drags them

Organisers of the Mr SA beauty pageant have refuted racism claims made by singer Busiswa and other social media users who called them out for the measly number of people of colour in their finalists.

Mzansi dragged Mr SA on Twitter until the pageant landed on the trends list after the pageant announced its all-white top three. The crowning of the new title holder, Hannes van der Walt, as well as that of the De Villiers Koster and Lee Jordan Jacobs as the first and second runners-up respectively, happened at the weekend.

Tweeps expressed their concern that the pageant was essentially “white”. Responding to the alleged racism, the organisers told TshisaLIVE that the claims were “completely false”.

“The allegations of racism in our organisation or competition are completely false. Racism has no place in the world and even less so in our organisation,” Mr SA management said.

The organisers went into detail about how the contestants are selected and scored.  

“Mister South Africa’s finalists are selected based off challenge scores, public votes and judges scoring to ensure a fair competition for all men who enter.

“It is completely overlooked that four of our finalists are people of colour, two of our title-holders are people of colour, two of our 2020 judges are women of colour, three of our partnering brands are owned and run by women of colour. Not that the colour of someone’s skin makes any difference, we are all human.”

The organisation added that allegations like these would continue to divide the country, which is the exact opposite of what the pageant brand stands for.

“We strive to unite South Africa to build a better country for generations to come.”

Singer-songwriter Busiswa was one of the influential Mzansi celebs who accused the pageant of being biased. She said this after screenshots from a direct message (DMs) conversation between Mr SA and a concerned social media user (@MasaDiamond_) emerged on Twitter and went viral.

In the heated conversation, the tweep called out Mr SA for its alleged racism while the organisation defended its choices.

Busiswa found their responses problematic and applauded the tweep who took them to task in the DMs.

“OMG ... it’s the '2 of Our' for me, that was repeated 3 times ... Like more than that will be too many people of colour ... and how they want you to encourage people of colour to enter ... yeyiiiii!!! Hhaybo!!! In South Africa our land ..." Busiswa tweeted.

In the DMs, the organisers were called out for being unfair and lacking the right amount of people of colour in the competition.

Here's a thread of that heated DM conversation: