Mr Gay World South Africa (formerly known as Mr Gay South Africa) is a registered and trademarked competition founded in 2009 to present a professional competition for gay men in South Africa – a role model and a representative of which the entire LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex) community can be proud of. Both the 2009 and 2010 winners, Charl van den Berg and Francois Nel, went on to win the Mr. Gay World title; Charl in Oslo, Norway and Francois in Manila, Philippines. The 2011 Mr Gay South Africa, Lance Weyer, was first runner-up when Mr Gay World was hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg in April 2012. Mr Gay South Africa 2012 was chosen at a glittering Grand Finale in Pretoria on Saturday 8 December 2012 at the brand new, state-of-the-art Atterbury Theatre at Lynnwood Bridge and would have represented South Africa at Mr Gay World 2013, in August 2013 in Antwerp, Belgium. He is 23-year-old Jason Rogers from Pretoria.^[1] Rogers has since resigned, citing work and study commitments preventing him from giving his full commitment to the title. The first runner-up, Steve Williams, took over the 2012 title since June 2013 and represented South Africa at Mr Gay World 2013 in Antwerp, Belgium. The 2013 title holder is Werner de Waal, representing South Africa at Mr. Gay World 2014 in Rome, Italy. The competition is defined by the organisation as the search for the ultimate gay male in South Africa. Mr Gay South Africa is a heavily promoted role in the country and the title holder takes his job of educating, informing and campaigning to the public at large seriously.^[2] The winner represents South Africa at the annual Mr Gay World competition.

History

Mr Gay South Africa was established in 2009. Its first and second years' winners, Charl van den Berg (2009) and Francois Nel (2010), both proceeded to win the Mr Gay World competition; Charl in Oslo, Norway in February 2010 and Francois in Manila, Philippines in March 2011. On 26 November 2011, Mr Gay South Africa 2011, Lance Weyer (24) was crowned^[3] winning prizes valued at over R300 000. The first runner-up was aleXander Steyn and the second runner-up was Casper Bosman.^[4] Lance Weyer is an elected public representative (East London),^[5] this fact causing the mainstream press in South Africa to widely report on his win. Mr Gay South Africa won the right to host Mr Gay World 2012, which was held over four days in Johannesburg from 4 to 8 April 2012, with the Grand Finale attended by more than 1000 people on 8 April 2012.

Titleholders

Year	Country/Territory	Mr Gay World	National title	Location
2009	South Africa	Charl Van Den Berg	Mr Gay South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa
2010	South Africa	Francois Nel	Mr Gay South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa
2011	South Africa	Lance Weyer	Mr Gay South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa
2012	South Africa	Jason Rogers and Steve Williams	Mr Gay South Africa	Pretoria, South Africa
2013–2014	South Africa	Werner De Waal	Mr Gay South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa
2015	South Africa	Craig Maggs	Mr Gay South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa
2016	South Africa	Oelof de Meyer	Mr Gay Mardi Gras Southern Africa	Knysna, South Africa
2016	South Africa	Alexander Steyn	Mr Gay Mardi Gras Southern Africa / Mr Gay World Southern Africa	Knysna, South Africa
2017	South Africa	Juan Pinnick	Mr Gay World South Africa	Pretoria, South Africa
2018	South Africa	Chris Emmanual	Mr Gay World South Africa	Pretoria, South Africa
2019-2020	South Africa	Charl-jaquairdo van Helsdingen	Mr Gay World South Africa	Pretoria, South Africa
2021	South Africa	Shanon Kannigan	Mr Gay World South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa

References