THE SHOW JUDGES ARE JUST THAT

In 1982, the Miss South Africa pageant (Sunday Times) was held at Kine 1 at the Kine Carlton complex in Johannesburg. Whilst the pageant was still in full-swing in the theatre, a newspaper vendor was selling the Sunday Times on the street outside the complex with a picture of the new Miss SA, Sandra de Meyer, splashed across the front page.

Since the guests at the pageant had forked out an arm-and-a-leg for the privilege of attending the pageant and subsequent cocktail party, a pageant official hastily rushed down and "removed" the newspaper vendor to avoid an embarrassing situation. After all, there was a panel of judges in the theatre "judging" the contestants.

Nothing has changed in 27 years, and for those of us that still believe that the panel of celebrity judges has a meaningful say in the selection of the winner on the night, you're wrong. Admittedly, the panel of judges in the theatre in 1982 was the same panel that had judged the contestants during the preliminary competition earlier in the day.

At the current pageant the celebrity judges could, at best, shuffle a couple of the runner-up places around since their contribution to the final score is 20%. The crown, however, already has the winner's name engraved on it when the curtain goes up.