Seipei Mashugane

Seipei Mashugane is a contestant from Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets.

Although her controlling personality saw her beginning the game in the minority on Sa'ula, Seipei's excellent speaking skills and motherly persona helped her become a valued member of the Amigos Alliance. Despite being the only member of her alliance swapped onto Laumei, Seipei was able to gain control of the tribe by becoming the leader of the "Band of Misfits" even in a streak of immunity losses. After a second tribe switch, she entered the merge as the ringleader of the Ta'alo majority alliance and had a vice grip over the Manumalo tribe. However, Seipei's failure to keep a low profile and her impulse to break up the Amigos Alliance prompted Rob Bentele to lead a successful charge to overthrow the Manumalo matriarch.

Profile[]

Retrieved from m-net.dstv.com

Surname: Mashugane
Age: 40
Occupation: Entrepreneur and Biker Queen
From: Soweto

Nobody wants to mess with entrepreneur and "Biker Queen" Seipei. The strong, no-nonsense single mother has built a life for herself and her two children through grit and determination, after deciding that she wants them to have access to the absolute best education. If she puts her mind to something, consider it done. And, as she admits herself, it's always her way or the highway. When she is not the driving force behind one of several business ventures, she revs it up on her Harley Davidson motorcycle on road trips across the country. As mobility, independence and emancipation are extremely important to Seipei, she also teaches women that biking holds a key to freedom. This iron lady has won several road challenges on her smokin' two-wheel chariot, but will she also lead the pack on the Survivor SA island?^[2]

Survivor South Africa[]

Beginning the game on Sa'ula, Seipei was originally left out of the majority alliance of five who considered targeting her. However, her performance at the first Tribal Council helped to keep her in the game and take out Lee-Anne van Renen instead. After helping to blindside Paul Smulders on Day 5, Seipei and the other members of Sa'ula formed an alliance known as The Amigos.

On Day 8, a Tribe Switch sent Seipei to the new Laumei tribe. Despite being the sole representative of the original Sa'ula, Seipei quickly developed strong bonds with Tania Copeland and Jacques Burger, as well as outsider Durão Mariano. Unfortunately for Seipei, the Laumei tribe struggled in Immunity Challenges. However, Seipei herself remained safe from the votes due to the value in her connections to the original Sa'ula. A second swap on Day 15 sent Seipei to the new Ta'alo tribe. Following Rocco van Rooyen's departure, Seipei and the rest of new Ta'alo created an alliance known as the Spitshake Seven, with the aim to take out the six players that would merge from the new Sa'ula.

After the two tribes merged into the new Manumalo tribe on Day 20, Seipei reunited with her original Amigos ally Nicole Capper, who gave her half of a Hidden Immunity Idol to cement their trust in one another. The Spitshake Seven quickly targeted the remaining pairs from Sa'ula, successfully splitting each pair up with Meryl Szolkeiwicz and Geoffrey Cooke-Tonnesen respectively being voted out. However, Rob Bentele started to feel that Seipei was the puppet master of the alliance. These fears were later confirmed when Seipei attempted to shift the next target from Mmaba Molefe to Laetitia Le Roux. Rob successfully recruited the majority of the tribe in on his plan to blindside Seipei, and with Nicole's help was able to convince Seipei to give back the half of the Idol Nicole had given her at merge. On Day 26, Seipei eventually conceded to the rest of her alliance to vote out Mmaba over Laetitia, but Rob's plan was successful, blindsiding Seipei in a 7-2-1-1 vote. She became the third member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, Seipei stated to Rob that she had conflicting feelings about him and how he ended up sitting at as a finalist. Seipei wanted Rob to explain how he ended up in one of the seats of the final three. Rob likened the original Sa'ula tribe as his family, referring to Seipei as his mother. Rob expressed that he wanted an original Sa'ula endgame and believed that Seipei lost her way when she wanted to vote out Nicole and Steffi. Seipei pointed out that there were flaws in Rob's logic. Seipei gave her jury vote to Nicole, who lost the title of Sole Survivor to Rob in a 6-4-0 vote.

Voting History[]

Episode	Seipei's Votes	Voted Against Seipei
1	Lee-Anne	Lee-Anne, Paul
2	Paul	-
3	Sa'ula Tribe Immune
4	On Island of Secrets¹
5	Felix	-
6	Tania	-
7	Rocco	-
8	Ta'alo Tribe Immune
9	Meryl	-
10	Geoffrey	-
11	Mmaba	Durão, Laetitia, Mike, Mmaba, Nicole, Rob, Steffi
Voted Out, Day 26
Voted for Sole Survivor	Nicole

^1 In "I'm Not Gonna Buy This B.S.", Ta'alo sent Seipei to the Island of Secrets, granting her immunity from Laumei's Tribal Council.

Post-Survivor[]

Seipei, along with nineteen other former Survivor, Australian Survivor, Survivor South Africa, and Survivor New Zealand contestants, competed in the second Survivor-themed mini-competition of Sequester on June 20, 2020. She was eliminated in the sixth round, finishing in 15th place.^[3]