Miss Supranational SA changes hands again, Joani Jacobs replaces Bokang Montjane-Tshabalala
· Citizen
Miss Supranational South Africa has a new national director.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
In a media release issued this week, the organisation announced that Joani Jacobs will now lead the pageant’s local operations, backed by a team drawn largely from the Mrs South Africa organisation.
What the release does not mention is who Jacobs, the long-time CEO of Mrs South Africa, is replacing.
That would be Bokang Montjane-Tshabalala, the former Miss South Africa 2010 and Miss World Africa 2011 titleholder, whose company African Beauty International (ABI) has run Miss Supranational South Africa since mid-2025.
New leadership, old questions
The chain of ownership has marked a few, significant changes in history.
In May 2025, the Miss South Africa organisation announced it would not renew its Miss Supranational licence and would not participate in that year’s competition.
This was a decision, the national beauty pageant said, that had nothing to do with then-titleholder Mia le Roux or runner-up Nompumelelo Maduna.
Within days, Montjane-Tshabalala announced on social media that she had been appointed the new director of Miss Supranational South Africa.
From there, ABI expanded rapidly.
Montjane-Tshabalala’s company acquired the Miss Universe South Africa licence in 2025, added Miss Supranational the same year, and completed a sweep of pageantry’s “Big Three” in June 2026 by also securing the Miss World South Africa franchise.
Under her Miss Supranational stewardship, model and content creator Shannon Benting was crowned Miss Supranational South Africa 2026 and went on to represent the country in Poland in July.
Why now?
Joani Jacobs, CEO of Mrs South Africa, has been named the new National Director of Miss Supranational South Africa. Picture: SuppliedThe release issued on Jacobs’ behalf frames the shift around legacy rather than any stated dispute, with Jacobs invoking Lalela Mswane’s 2022 Miss Supranational win as the benchmark to build on.
Neither the release nor the coverage explains why ABI – having just consolidated all three major pageant licences in the country by June – would give up Miss Supranational only months later, or whether Montjane-Tshabalala initiated the change or the international Miss Supranational organisation did.
At the time of writing, Montjane-Tshabalala had not made any public comment on the matter.
Under Jacobs’ leadership, Miss Supranational South Africa will draw on Mrs South Africa’s existing infrastructure.
PR Worx CEO Madelain Roscher and Cindy Nell join as shareholders, with Roscher also handling public relations; Marlene Reddy-Ribeiro will lead operations; and Jacqueline Ferns and Matapa Maila join the board.
Jacobs, who has led Mrs South Africa since 2011 and founded Ace Models International in 2005, said in a statement that her focus is on preparing a titleholder for “what may follow” a Miss Supranational reign, not just for competition night.
No date has been set for the opening of the next Miss Supranational South Africa search at the time of writing.