Meet the new Miss SA & her family
The new Miss SA tells YOU about her passions, her unusual family and what she has planned for her reign
SHE loves koeksisters, milk tart, chops and wors and “a little piece of bread off the braai”. A homegrown beauty who’ll be channelling her love of the land into trying to make the country a better place. It’s the day after the Miss South Africa crown was placed on the glossy head of Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters and the news still hasn’t sunk in properly.
Her life has changed overnight, something that was drummed home when she woke up the morning after the glitzy pageant at Sun City with two bodyguards stationed outside her suite at The Palace of the Lost City.
But she knew what she was getting into when she signed up for the competition, she says, and she’s more than prepared to throw herself into the year ahead.
“When I start something I finish it,” the 21-year-old business management graduate says. “I didn’t do this just to tick it off a bucket list. It’s something I’ve thought about.”
Among those watching her being crowned the loveliest in the land were four people who could barely contain their excitement: her close-knit clan of four parents. Dad Bennie Peters (53), stepmom Elzabé (43), mom Anne-Mari Steenkamp (56) and stepdad Johan (58).
It’s unusual for two sets of parents to be as close as this lot but it’s helped make Demi-Leigh’s life a happy, uncomplicated one. “We even have a parents’ WhatsApp group for the four of us and Demi-Leigh always tells us what she’s up to, no matter how busy she is,” Anne-Mari says.
The family are still coming down to earth after Demi-Leigh’s night of triumph. “Last night really stood out for us,” Johan says.
And for Demi-Leigh, having her two moms and two dads there made the night that much more special.
BENNIE and Anne-Mari split up when Demi-Leigh was 18 months old. She was too young to remember them as a couple. Now the two couples are like peas in a pod. “No one ever gets married to get divorced and it’s sad it had to happen but we have a great relationship,” Bennie says. “Yes, we have our differences, but we’re mature adults who can disagree on
stuff and talk it through without involving Demi-Leigh. She loves us all equally.”
Having Demi-Leigh crowned Miss South Africa has, if anything, brought everyone closer
“We don’t usually do Christmas together, but we’ve decided we’re all going to be together this year,” Elzabé says.
“Only problem is, who’ll cook?” Anne-Mari adds.
Growing up, Demi-Leigh lived in Sedgefield with Anne-Mari and Johan who married when Demi-Leigh was four. She went to school in George and was head girl of the school and hostel at Outeniqua High School.
Later she moved to Potchefstroom to live with Bennie and Elzabé, who married when DemiLeigh was three, so she could study at North-West University (NWU).
Coming from commercially minded households – Bennie, Anne-Mari and Johan own their own businesses, while Elzabé is a clinical psychologist – it’s small wonder Demi-Leigh decided to pursue business studies. She graduated last year.
“She was very into business, even as a little girl,” Anne-Mari recalls. “She’d do drawings and would walk around the neighbourhood asking family and friends to buy her pictures for R10 each.”
But business wasn’t her only passion: taking part in pageants has been a big part of her life for years. She’s always been a Miss South Africa fan too, regarding Miss SA 2002, Cindy Nell, as her inspiration for entering the contest.
“I was seven when Cindy was crowned and I really look up to her. I think she really used this platform to her advantage.”
Demi-Leigh entered her first pageant at her primary school in Sasolburg in Grade 1 and later won the title of Little Miss Sedgefield after moving there with AnneMari and Johan when she was nine.
She went on to enter the big leagues, ranking in the top five at Miss Teen SA in 2010, winning Miss Diaz in 2012 and Miss NWU Varsity Cup in 2015 and taking the crown as the national winner of Miss Varsity Cup in 2015.
“One thing you need to know is that although Demi-Leigh took part in all of these pageants she’s never been a poppie,” Elzabé says. “She’ll go on hikes, be sweaty and have no make-up on and that’s all the same to her.”
DEMI-LEIGH believes she grew up with the best of both worlds. “I had two homes with four parents. It’s normal to me and I applaud the way they’ve handled this,” she says. She’s also close to her sister, Franje, Bennie and Elzabé’s 11-year-old daughter.
“We found out we were expecting on Demi’s 11th birthday so we sent her a fax and told her that that would be her birthday present,” Elzabé recalls.
Despite the fact Elzabé had a normal pregnancy, Franje was born with a subtotal cerebellar agenesis – a rare condition that entails the absence of the brain’s cerebellum, which is located behind the top part of the brain stem where the spinal cord meets the brain.
Franje has the mental capacity of a three-month-old baby. She can’t walk, talk or eat and has to be fed via a feeding tube.
Although Demi hasn’t spoken much about Franje throughout her Miss SA journey, she credits her little sister as her biggest motivation.
“In all the things I do in my life, I want to have twice as much fun. I want to work twice as hard because I want to do it for her too. She’ll never be able to have the life I have,” she says.
Her family and her faith in God have helped Demi-Leigh get where she is and she’s determined to give her best shot at everything she does.
She wants to use her reign as Miss South Africa to inspire other women and show them the importance of being unapologetically yourself, strong and independent.
“For the next 365 days this is my fulltime job but I really hope to do an MBA in the near future and start my own business,” she says.
“I want to focus on business development that will be like an incubator to help take other people and their entrepreneurial dreams to the next level.”
She’s excited about the journey ahead and her glittering future, which she hopes one day will include a husband and kids.
Romantically, she’s been linked to Mr SA 2014 contestant Geo Botha, but Demi-Leigh assures us they’ve never dated publicly – one of the conditions of Miss South Africa is the winner has to be unattached so she can concentrate on her duties.
Right now, the only guys in her life are her beloved Yorkies, Benji (4) and Baxter (2), who love it when she talks to them in a Minion voice.
Other than that she’ll be focusing 100 percent on her role as Miss South Africa.
“I don’t believe in handouts and I was raised to always work hard for what I have,” she says.
“I really want to use my reign to inspire as many people as possible. I don’t want to just test the water, I want to make waves.”