Danté de Villiers is a contestant from Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets and Survivor South Africa: Return of the Outcasts.
Hot-headed and impulsive, Danté's short fuse was the basis for numerous conflicts and outbursts in Island of Secrets, most notably with Geoffrey Cooke-Tonnesen, who intentionally provoked him to alienate him from the other castaways. Entering the merge, Danté and his Ta'alo ally Meryl Szolkeiwicz were outnumbered. With no social capital to boot, Danté's attempts to cobble a resistance against Rob Bentele fizzled out, and he was voted out at the final ten for being too much of a challenge threat.
Danté's second outing in Return of the Outcasts proceeded with greater success, though he still struggled with controlling his temper and notably clashed with Toni Tebbutt after he orchestrated PK Phetoe's blindside. As a member of the Breakfast Club, he entered the merge in a comfortable position, but Danté's gradually intensifying rivalry with Dino Paulo and his increasingly forceful attempts to vote him out turned his allies off from him, leading to his near-unanimous elimination at the final eleven.
Profile[]
Retrieved from m-net.dstv.com
Surname: De Villiers
Age: 31
Occupation: Coffee shop owner
From: Dwarskersbos, Cape West Coast
Name: Danté de Villiers
Previous season: Survivor SA: Island of Secrets S7
Age: 31
Hometown: Dwarskersbos
Loner Danté de Villiers has travelled the world, living in Thailand and Israel – but has now returned home to the Cape West Coast, where he grew up. The outdoorsy ocean lover believes he can provide for his tribe and excel in the physical challenges – putting him in a winning position.
Having previously owned and operated a coffee shop in Velddrif, he now hosts a podcast dedicated to interesting outlier personalities who are making a difference in the world, however big or small.
In his previous season, he felt like he didn't have the words to convince people to believe him. That meant he struggled to befriend other castaways, putting him on the back foot and forcing him to play a defensive game. This time, he'll be looking to give himself more personal time and space in the early mornings so that he can recharge to participate more in the social game at camp, during the day.[2]Survivor South Africa[]
Island of Secrets[]
Danté immediately stood out as the biggest physical asset of the Ta'alo tribe. His hair and his prowess in the water earned him the nickname "Aquaman". He was part of the majority of the tribe that planned to vote out Tania Copeland at their first Tribal Council, but was stunned to learn that Tania would be sent to the Island of Secrets and exempt from the vote. He pushed for Ting Ting Wong to go as she was considered the next weakest, though Jacques planned to save her with his idol. A late stroke of paranoia got the better of Jacques Burger though and he wasted his idol on himself, which annoyed Danté.
In the first tribe swap, Danté and his closest ally, Meryl Szolkeiwicz remained on Ta'alo in a 2-2-2 split of original tribe members. At a reward, Danté helped Meryl find a clue to a Hidden Immunity Idol, which turned out to be at the next Immunity Challenge. When Meryl reached for and obtained it, Danté alerted her that the rest of the tribe saw her, forcing Meryl to come clean about the idol and making the pair a target in Rob Bentele's eyes. Danté stole the flint to unnerve Rob, which appeared to work, but Rob used this situation to intentionally put the target on his back so that he could use the Sa'ula idol to blindside Danté. Fortunately for him, the strength of this iteration of Ta'alo and the weakness of Laumei prevented them from attending Tribal Council.
A second swap put Danté and Meryl on a tribe with two original Sa'ula and three original Laumei, where he started to play even more aggressively. Annoyed as Geoffrey's "emphasis on social game", Danté attempted to paint him as a snake and target Geoffrey. However, Geoffrey was able to form a majority alliance with Mmaba, Nicole Capper, and Durão Mariano where they pretended they were splitting the votes between Meryl and Danté but instead targeted Nathan Castle, which successfully flushed Meryl's idol.
This move put Meryl and Danté clearly in the bottom of the tribe once merge hit, despite his attempts to realign with Cobus Hugo and Jacques. The social and strategic threats that Meryl, Geoffrey Cooke-Tonnesen, and Seipei Mashugane posed as well as a timely Immunity Challenge win on Day 26 kept Dante in the game. During this time, Danté's several attempts to counter the Spitshake Seven and original Sa'ula core alliances (both led by Rob) failed as he had burned too many bridges previously. Danté had one last chance when he won reward on Day 27 and pitched an alliance to Mike Venter, Mmaba Molefe, and Laetitia Le Roux with the hopes of pulling in Durão. Ultimately his efforts failed, and after four post merge Tribal Councils of not voting with the majority, Danté was voted out 5-3-1 (due to Durão losing his vote as part of an Island of Secrets twist) on Day 28 and became the 4th member of the jury.
Voting History[]
| Episode | Danté's Votes |
Voted Against Danté |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ta'alo Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Ta'alo Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Ting Ting | - |
| 4 | Ta'alo Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Ta'alo Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Ta'alo Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | Sa'ula Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Geoffrey | - |
| 9 | Geoffrey | - |
| 10 | Nicole | Geoffrey, Mmaba |
| 11 | Rob | Individual Immunity |
| 12 | Cobus | Cobus, Jacques, Nicole, Rob, Steffi |
| Voted Out, Day 28 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Rob | |
Return of the Outcasts[]
| Episode | Tribe Affiliation |
Challenge | Challenge Type | Sit-Out? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masu | Water Slaughter | Reward | No | Won |
| 2 | Ladder Daze | Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 3 | Catch of the Day | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| 4 | Nut Bucket | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 5 | In the Trenches | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 6 | Reinventing the Wheel | Reward | No | Lost | |
| (No title) | Immunity | No | Won | ||
| Switched Tribes, Day 12 | |||||
| 7 | Yontau | Bog Roll | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost |
| 8 | |||||
| 9 | Blind Leading the Blind | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 10 | Swing Break | Reward/Immunity | No | Won | |
| 11 | Will Power | Reward/Immunity | No | Lost | |
| Tribes Merged, Night 19 | |||||
| 13 | Salan | Blue Plate Special | Reward | 8th1 | |
| Splash Back | Immunity | Lost | |||
| 14 | (No title) | Reward/Immunity | Lost | ||
| Voted Out, Day 23 | |||||
| Notes: ^1 The reward was dependent on each castaway's finish in the challenge. Danté finished 8th and took the biltong and beer from the merge buffet.
| |||||
| Episode | Danté's Votes |
Voted Against Danté |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Chappies | Shane |
| 3 | PK | - |
| 4 | Masu Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Masu Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Masu Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Dino, Shona | |
| 9 | Yontau Tribe Immune | |
| 10 | Yontau Tribe Immune | |
| 12 | Palesa | - |
| 13 | Toni | Tejan |
| 14 | Dino | Dino, Killarney, Marian, Phil, Shane, Steffi, Tejan |
| Voted Out, Day 23 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Dino | |
^1 In "This is Gonna Be a Life Long Torture", Dino used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Danté's vote against him.
Post-Survivor[]
Trivia[]
- Danté is the first contestant in Survivor South Africa to achieve the same placement in two different seasons.
- Both times Danté competed:
- He was on the same starting tribe with Meryl Szolkeiwicz.
- One of the votes to successfully eliminate him was from Steffi Brink.
- He voted for the eventual Sole Survivor to win the game.
- He finished in 10th place.
References[]
| Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets Castaways | |||||||||||||
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