Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets

Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets
Season Information
Version	South Africa
Season No.	7
Filming Location	Upolu, Samoa
Filming Dates	February 4, 2019 - March 14, 2019
Season Run	May 16, 2019 - September 12, 2019
No. of Episodes	18
No. of Days	39
No. of Castaways	21
Winner	Rob Bentele
Runner(s)-Up	Nicole Capper Durão Mariano
Tribes	Laumei Sa'ula Ta'alo Manumalo
Prize for Winner	R1,000,000
Cast
Opening Sequence
Season Chronology
Previous	Philippines
Next	Immunity Island

Survivor South Africa: Island of Secrets is the seventh season of Survivor South Africa.

This season saw the introduction of the eponymous Island of Secrets, a variant of Exile Island that bestowed game-changing powers to its visitors. The season generally proceeded in a straightforward manner, with one player, Rob Bentele, controlling the entire post-merge game with little effective resistance. Despite this, the cast of fiery personalities provided the kindling for much tension, with many of the in-game conflicts centered around the brash temperament of Danté De Villiers, the ostracism of Jacques Burger at the final eight, and the criticism directed at the majority alliance's sanctimonious gameplay. In the end, Rob defeated his allies Nicole Capper and Durão Mariano in a 6-4-0 jury vote to become the seventh Sole Survivor.

To date, Island of Secrets has produced five returning players (Danté De Villiers, Felix Godlo, Meryl Szolkeiwicz, Steffi Brink, and Tania Copeland) for a future season.

Production

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Twists/Changes

• Three Tribes: For the first time in Survivor South Africa, the game started with three tribes, each with seven members.
• Island of Secrets: Each week, selected castaways will be banished to the Island of Secrets, where game advantages may or may not be available.
  • Hidden Immunity Idol: Clues to the location of Hidden Immunity Idols at camp and at Tribal Council were given to visitors to the Island of Secrets.
    • Two-Part Hidden Immunity Idol
    • Time-Limited Hidden Immunity Idol
  • Reward Steal: This advantage allows its holder to steal one reward from another castaway after any Reward Challenge.
  • Vote Nullifier: This advantage allows its holder to block one castaway from voting at Tribal Council, and could be used up until there were four castaways left.
• Extra Vote: An Extra Vote advantage was up for grabs at the first Reward Challenge. It was only valid at the first Tribal Council after the merge.
• Hidden Immunity Idol: Hidden Immunity Idols were hidden around the tribe camps and castaways were either given or had to find clues to help locate them.
• Tribe Switch: On Day 8, a tribe switch occurred, dividing the 18 remaining players into three tribes of six.
• Tribe Dissolve: On Day 15, the Laumei tribe was dissolved, and the 15 remaining players were divided into two tribes of seven with the remaining player to being sent the Island of Secrets.
• Early Merge: For the first time, the individual phase of the game will commence with thirteen players left in the game.
• Final Three and Expanded Jury: This season featured a Final Tribal Council with three remaining finalists facing a ten-person jury.
• Reformatted Final Tribal Council: Final Tribal Council commenced with the jurors delivering individual speeches to the finalists, following which an open forum was held to ensure a more insightful rapport between the jury and finalists. However, the open forum was not shown in the episode.

Castaways

Contestant		Tribe Affiliation				Finish	Votes Against
		Original Tribe	First Switched Tribe	Second Switched Tribe	Merged Tribe
	Lee-Anne van Renen 33, Durbanville, WC Mrs. Cape Town 2018	Sa'ula				1st Voted Out Day 3	5
	Paul Smulders 54, Ruimsig, GP Real Estate Agent	Sa'ula				2nd Voted Out Day 5	4
	Ting Ting Wong 25, Durban, KZN Doctor	Ta'alo				3rd Voted Out Day 7	4
	Rose-Lee Smith 33, Paulshof, GP Crime Scene Analyst	Laumei	Laumei			4th Voted Out Day 9	3
	Felix Godlo 29, Garstfontein, GP Sales Consultant	Ta'alo	Laumei			5th Voted Out Day 12	4
	Tania Copeland 51, Somerset West, WC Immigration Consultant	Ta'alo	Laumei			6th Voted Out Day 14	5
	Rocco van Rooyen 26, Stellenberg, WC Professional Athlete	Laumei	Ta'alo	Ta'alo		7th Voted Out Day 16	6
	Nathan Castle 25, Milnerton, WC Media Producer	Sa'ula	Sa'ula	Sa'ula		8th Voted Out Day 19	5
	Meryl Szolkeiwicz 31, Irene, GP Pilates Instructor	Ta'alo	Ta'alo	Sa'ula	Manumalo	9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 22	8
	Geoffrey Cooke-Tonnesen 33, Colenso, KZN Home Loans Consultant	Laumei	Sa'ula	Sa'ula		10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 24	17
	Seipei Mashugane 40, Soweto, GP Biker Queen	Sa'ula	Laumei	Ta'alo		11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 26	9
	Danté De Villiers 31, Dwarskersbos, WC Coffee Shop Owner	Ta'alo	Ta'alo	Sa'ula		12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 28	7
	Cobus Hugo 27, Greenpoint, WC Architect	Ta'alo	Sa'ula	Ta'alo		13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 30	8
	Mmaba Molefe 28, Plumstead, WC Investment Analyst	Laumei	Sa'ula	Sa'ula		14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 32	7
	Jacques Burger 27, Queenswood, GP Industrial Engineer	Ta'alo	Laumei	Ta'alo		15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 34	12
	Mike Venter 21, Parkrand, GP Radio Presenter	Laumei	Sa'ula	Ta'alo		16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 35	4
	Steffi Brink 27, Glen Austin, GP Fitness Model	Sa'ula	Sa'ula	Ta'alo		17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37	8
	Laetitia Le Roux 58, Randburg, GP Nurse	Laumei	Ta'alo	Ta'alo		18th Voted Out 10th Jury Member Day 38	4
	Durão Mariano 28, Newlands East, KZN Hotel Guest Liaison	Laumei	Laumei	Sa'ula		Second Runner-Up	4
	Nicole Capper 34, Fourways, GP Ex-Mrs. South Africa	Sa'ula	Ta'alo	Sa'ula		Runner-Up	3
	Rob Bentele 28, Richards Bay, KZN Events Videographer	Sa'ula	Ta'alo	Ta'alo		Sole Survivor	3

Season Summary

This season began with three tribes of seven: Laumei, Sa'ula and Ta'alo. Sa'ula lost the first two Immunity Challenges with the five remaining members forming a tight bond through their struggles. At Laumei, a trio formed between Geoffrey, Mike and Mmaba to vote out Rocco, although the tribe's immunity streak prevented them from doing so. At Ta'alo, Tania found herself as the tribe outcast, but a twist in which she was sent to the Island of Secrets and chose to stay there on the night of the tribe's first Tribal Council resulted in Ting Ting being eliminated instead.

At the Tribe Switch, Tania was given the power to choose her new tribe, where she joined the new Laumei. The new Laumei proceeded to go on a losing streak, reducing their numbers to three and triggering a second swap in which the tribe was dissolved. At the new Ta'alo, Mike joined forces with Rob to vote out Rocco at the first opportunity. At the new Sa'ula, a rift formed between Geoffrey and Danté, with Nicole blindsiding her close ally Nathan. The day before the merge, the seven members of the Ta'alo tribe forged the "Spitshaker Seven" alliance.

The tribes merged at 13 with 5 original Laumei members, 4 original Sa'ula members and 4 original Ta'alo members. The Spitshaker Seven voted out Meryl and Geoffrey for being threats before Rob, Nicole and Steffi decided to turn on their alliance and orchestrate the blindside of Seipei. Danté tried to rally the bottom members of the alliance to take down Rob but was ultimately ignored due to his aggression and being perceived as a physical threat. A major fight broke out at camp between Jacques and Rob's core alliance, which resulted in the former being ostracized by his tribemates. Mike made his own plans to take down Rob's core alliance, which was foiled due to Durão choosing to stay loyal to Rob. Rob and Nicole proceeded to eliminate any member of the tribe who showed any display of disloyalty to them, leaving them and Durão as the Final Three.

At Final Tribal Council, the final three received heavy criticism from the jury; Durão for being perceived as a confused coattail rider, and Rob and Nicole for their betrayals and perceived sanctimonious attitude. Despite the hostility from the jury, Rob and Nicole received votes with Durão receiving none, and ultimately, Rob was rewarded for his control of the game, winning the title of Sole Survivor in a close 6-4-0 vote.

Episode1		Air Date	Challenges		Exiled	Eliminated (vote)	Finish
			Reward	Immunity
1	"I Just Want to Fix Your Crown"	May 16, 2019	None2	Ta'alo	Rocco	Lee-Anne (5-2)	1st Voted Out Day 3
					Paul
				Laumei
					Cobus
2	"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"	May 23, 2019	Laumei3,4		Rob	Paul (4-1)	2nd Voted Out Day 5
			Ta'alo4
			None	Ta'alo
3	"The Gods Have Smiled Upon Me"	May 30, 2019	Sa'ula3		Tania	Ting Ting (4-2)5	3rd Voted Out Day 7
			Laumei3
4	"I'm Not Gonna Buy This B.S."	June 6, 2019	Ta'alo3		Seipei	Rose-Lee (3-2)	4th Voted Out Day 9
			Sa'ula3
5	"It's Time for a Hail Mary"	June 13, 2019	Ta'alo	Ta'alo	Geoffrey	Felix (4-1)	5th Voted Out Day 12
			Laumei	Sa'ula
6	"Let Them Play Barbie and Ken"	June 20, 2019	Laumei	Sa'ula	Nathan	Tania (3-1)	6th Voted Out Day 14
				Ta'alo	Nicole
7	"The Game Chooses for You"	June 27, 2019	Ta'alo	Sa'ula	Steffi6	Rocco (6-1)	7th Voted Out Day 16
8	"Putting My Foot in My Mouth"	July 4, 2019	Ta'alo	Ta'alo	Durão	Nathan (4-2-0)7	8th Voted Out Day 19
9	"Are You Crying?"	July 11, 2019	None	Steffi	Steffi8	Meryl (7-6)	9th Voted Out 1st Jury Member Day 22
10	"He's Delicious-Looking..."	July 18, 2019	Danté, Durão, Geoffrey, Mmaba	Rob	Jacques	Geoffrey (9-2-1)	10th Voted Out 2nd Jury Member Day 24
11	"The Puppetmaster"	July 25, 2019		Cobus9	Cobus, Nicole	Seipei (7-2-1-1)	11th Voted Out 3rd Jury Member Day 26
			Danté, Jacques, Mike3
12	"One Trick Pony"	August 1, 2019	Danté [Laetitia, Mike, Mmaba]	Durão	Durão	Danté (5-3-1)	12th Voted Out 4th Jury Member Day 28
13	"Trouble Council"	August 8, 2019	Nicole		Rob	Cobus (5-2-2)	13th Voted Out 5th Jury Member Day 30
			Steffi
			Rob
			Rob3
14	"The Biggest Mother"	August 15, 2019	Mmaba10	Nicole	Mmaba, Steffi	Mmaba (5-1-0)7	14th Voted Out 6th Jury Member Day 32
15	"The Lightbulbs Are Switching On"	August 22, 2019	Survivor Yankee Swap	Mike	Steffi	Jacques (4-3)	15th Voted Out 7th Jury Member Day 34
16	"Someone You Can Trust"	August 29, 2019	Rob3		Durão, Mike, Nicole	Mike (4-1-1)	16th Voted Out 8th Jury Member Day 35
			[Laetitia, Steffi]
17	"Icarus"	September 5, 2019	Rob [Nicole]	Rob	Laetitia	Steffi (2-0-0)7	17th Voted Out 9th Jury Member Day 37
18	"Action Speaks Louder"	September 12, 2019	None	Rob	None	Laetitia (3-1)	18th Voted Out 10th Jury Member Day 38
			Jury Vote			Durão (6-4-0)	Second Runner-Up
						Nicole (6-4-0)	Runner-Up
						Rob (6-4-0)	Sole Survivor
Notes: ^1 This season's episodes are unnamed on streaming services. Titles were provided to this wiki by Leroux Botha. ^2 The tribes competed to collect supplies. No winner was declared for the challenge. ^3 Combined Reward/Immunity Challenge. ^4 Two Immunity Challenges were conducted. The first saw the first place tribe win reward and immunity, with the second only winning reward. The second- and last-place tribes competed in a second Immunity Challenge. ^5 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^6 Due to an odd number of castaways at the tribe switch, the castaway who was not assigned to a tribe was exiled until after the following Tribal Council, when they would join the tribe that lost a member. ^7 A Hidden Immunity Idol was used, negating all votes against its user. ^8 The winner of the Immunity Challenge would sent someone to the Island of Secrets, exempting them from Tribal Council. ^9 For picking the white blocks, Cobus and Nicole were sent to the Island of Secrets where they competed for Individual Immunity, which Cobus won. ^10 After being chosen to go to the Island of Secrets, Mmaba and Steffi competed in a challenge for an advantage, which Mmaba won.

Voting History

		Original Tribes			First Switched Tribes			Second Switched Tribes		Merged Tribe
Episode		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Voted Out		Lee-Anne	Paul	Ting Ting	Rose-Lee	Felix	Tania	Rocco	Nathan	Meryl	Geoffrey	Seipei	Danté	Cobus	Mmaba	Jacques	Mike	Steffi	Laetitia	Durão	Nicole	Rob
Vote		5-2	4-1	4-23	3-2	4-1	3-1	6-1	4-2-06	7-6	9-2-1	7-2-1-1	5-3-1	5-2-2	5-1-06	4-3	4-1-1	2-0-03,6	3-1	6-4-0
►►►	Rob	Lee-Anne	None1	—	—	—	—	Rocco	—	Meryl	Geoffrey	Seipei	Danté	Cobus	Mmaba	Jacques	Mike	Laetitia	Laetitia	Jury Vote
►►►	Nicole	Lee-Anne	Paul	—	—	—	—	—	Nathan	Meryl	Geoffrey	Seipei	Danté	Cobus	Mmaba	Jacques	Mike	Steffi	Laetitia
►►►	Durão	—	—	—	Tania	Felix	Tania	—	Nathan	Meryl	Geoffrey	Seipei	None9	Cobus	Mmaba	Steffi	Steffi	Steffi	Laetitia
►►►	Laetitia	—	—	—	—	—	—	Rocco	—	Geoffrey	Geoffrey	Seipei	Jacques	Jacques	Mmaba	Jacques	Mike	Durão	Nicole			Rob
►►►	Steffi	Lee-Anne	Paul	—	—	—	—	Exiled5	—	Exiled7	Geoffrey	Seipei	Danté	Cobus	Mmaba	Jacques	Mike	Durão			Nicole
►►►	Mike	—	—	—	—	—	—	Rocco	—	Meryl	Geoffrey	Seipei	Jacques	Cobus	Jacques	Steffi	Nicole					Rob
►►►	Jacques	—	—	Cobus	Rose-Lee	Felix	Tania	Rocco	—	Geoffrey8	Geoffrey	Mmaba	Danté	Steffi	Rob	Steffi					Nicole
										Geoffrey8
►►►	Mmaba	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Nathan	Meryl	Danté	Seipei	Jacques	Jacques	Jacques							Rob
►►►	Cobus	—	—	Ting Ting	—	—	—	Rocco	—	Geoffrey	Geoffrey	Durão	Danté	Steffi							Nicole
►►►	Danté	—	—	Ting Ting	—	—	—	—	Geoffrey	Geoffrey	Nicole	Rob	Cobus									Rob
►►►	Seipei	Lee-Anne	Paul	—	Exiled4	Felix	Tania	Rocco	—	Meryl	Geoffrey	Mmaba									Nicole
►►►	Geoffrey	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Nathan	Meryl	Danté											Rob
►►►	Meryl	—	—	Ting Ting	—	—	—	—	Geoffrey	Geoffrey												Rob
►►	Nathan	Lee-Anne	Paul	—	—	—	—	—	Meryl
►►	Rocco	—	—	—	—	—	—	Rob
►	Tania	—	—	Exiled2	Rose-Lee	Felix	Jacques
►	Felix	—	—	Ting Ting	Rose-Lee	Durão
►	Rose-Lee	—	—	—	Tania
	Ting Ting	—	—	Cobus
	Paul	Seipei	Nathan
	Lee-Anne	Seipei
Notes: ^1 Rob wagered his vote for an advantage on Island of Secrets and lost, losing his vote at the following Tribal Council. ^2 Tania had the choice to go back to her tribe or stay at the Island of Secrets until the Tribe Switch. She decided to stay, abstaining herself from Tribal Council. ^3 A Hidden Immunity Idol was played; however, no votes were cast against its user. ^4 For finishing first at the Immunity Challenge, Ta'alo was given the opportunity to send one player to the Island of Secrets, preventing them from attending Tribal Council. They chose Seipei. ^5 Due to an odd number of players at the time of the Tribe Switch, Steffi—the odd person out—was sent to the Island of Secrets and rejoined the game as a member of Ta'alo, replacing Rocco and evening the tribes at 7-7. ^6 A Hidden Immunity Idol was used, negating all votes against its user. ^7 After winning the Immunity Challenge, Steffi was given the right to send one castaway to the Island of Secrets, who would not attend Tribal Council. Steffi opted to send herself. ^8 This castaway used an Extra Vote advantage, allowing them to vote twice at Tribal Council. ^9 Durão gave away his vote for an advantage at the next Immunity Challenge.

Trivia

The custom Buff handed to crew members.

• Island of Secrets is the second season of Survivor South Africa to feature an odd number of castaways, after Maldives.
  • As a result, Island of Secrets is the third season of Survivor South Africa to have an uneven gender divide, after Santa Carolina and Maldives. This season featured 10 women compared to 11 men.
• With Rob's victory, the male winners of Survivor South Africa outnumber the female winners for the first time.
• Members of this season's production crew were also given their own customized Buffs.
• With 21 contestants, Island of Secrets features the most number of castaways in Survivor South Africa.