Survivor South Africa: Maldives

Survivor South Africa: Maldives is the fourth season of Survivor South Africa.
Maldives featured 19 new contestants who began the game divided into two informal groups, the "Celebs" and the "Plebs". Through an unusual tribe division process, the and tribes were formed on Day 4 and came to define the rest of the season's politics. The twist-heavy season introduced the modern Hidden Immunity Idol to Survivor South Africa as well as the Black and White Cowries, all of which contributed significantly to the season's active strategy. After 27 days of intense gameplay combined with numerous heated arguments, both of a strategic and personal nature, "Celeb" Hykie Berg defeated "Pleb" Letshego Moshoeu in an 8-3 jury vote to become the first male Ultimate Survivor of the series.
Following the airing of Maldives, the Survivor South Africa series entered its second hiatus until its resumption with in 2014.
To date, Maldives has produced one returning player (Tejan Pillay) for a future season.
==Production==
==Twists/Changes==
* Odd-Numbered Cast: The game began with nineteen contestants.
* "Celebs" vs. "Plebs": The cast comprised of nine well-known South African celebrities, referred to as "Celebs", and ten regular South African citizens, referred to as "Plebs".
* Separated Maroonings: The groups of "Celebs" and "Plebs" were marooned without any knowledge of each other's existence. They would be united on Day 4.
* Tribe Division: The nine "Celebs" were divided into two teams of four at the first Reward Challenge, with one member drawing the odd black buff and being left without a team. Separately, the "Plebs" were divided into two teams of five at the first Immunity Challenge. The losing team of "Plebs" attended Tribal Council on Day 3 and voted out one member. At the union of the groups, the like-colored team members joined to become and . The person with the black buff joined the tribe whose "Plebs" lost the first Immunity Challenge.
* First Impressions: Following the first Reward Challenge as new tribes, Goma and Raituhn each voted for the castaway they believed best fit the description of being the "least cut out to be in the game of Survivor".
* Black Cowrie Shell: The two castaways who received the most votes at the First Impressions twist received a Black Cowrie shell bracelet. The person holding the Black Cowrie at Tribal Council would automatically have one vote against them. The only way that they could prevent that from happening would be to defect to the opposing tribe at the beginning of an Immunity Challenge. Regardless of whether they mutinied, if the person holding the Black Cowrie was voted out, they would pass the curse on to one of their tribemates. The twist ended at the merge.
* Hidden Immunity Idol: One Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at each camp. As opposed to the two previous seasons where the idol was played before the votes are cast, this idol is to be played after the votes are cast, but before the votes are read.
*Double Tribal Council: On Day 15, both tribes were instructed to vote out one member.
* Merge: On Day 16, the tribes merged with nine members remaining.
* White Cowrie Shell: The White Cowrie Shell was introduced into the game at the start of the merge. The holder of the White Cowrie can choose to negate a vote cast against someone else in the tribe when they vote. The person who is "blessed" by the White Cowrie would become its next holder.
* Final Tribal Council Format: The Final Two faced a jury of ten.
**Public Vote: After the airing of the penultimate episode, the public would vote for their favorite finalist. The finalist who receives more votes from the public would receive an extra vote at the Final Tribal Council.
==Castaways==
Contestant	Contestant 	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation	Tribe Affiliation 	Finish	VotesAgainst
Pre-Tribes	Original Tribe 	Merged Tribe 	 	 	Finish	VotesAgainst
 	Lukhanyo Nontshinga27, Kimberley, NCPro Rugby Player 	 	 	 	 	3
 	Philicity Reeken30, Johannesburg, GPActress 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Tshepo Maseko36, Johannesburg, GPActor 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Tasleem Vally25, Durban, KZNMake-Up Artist 	 	 	 	 	9
 	Carmel Fisher29, Johannesburg, GPActress 	 	 	 	 	4
 	Jacques Terre'Blanche28, Johannesburg, GPMusician 	 	 	 	 	2
 	Sindi Lukhele25, Johannesburg, GPEvents Coordinator 	 	 	 	 	2
 	Vanessa Haywood33, Cape Town, WCActress 	 	 	 	 	5
 	Roxy Burger24, Johannesburg, GPPresenter 	 	 	 	 	6
 	Harry Wiggins27, Worcester, WCMaths Lecturer 	 	 	 	 	11
 	Simon Coetzer40, Johannesburg, GPHR Consultant 	 	 	rowspan="9" 	 	5
 	Malusi Mbambo30, Durban, KZNBusiness Development Consultant	 	 	 	5 	
 	Tejan Pillay32, Durban, KZNEngineer 	 	 	 	8 	
 	Sean September40, Cape Town, WCLawyer 	 	 	12th Voted Out7th Jury MemberDay 23	5 	
 	Alison de Chazal53, Durban, KZNMother 	 	 	 	6 	
 	MXO Lokwe31, Johannesburg, GPMusician 	 	 	 	5 	
 	Bonnie Henna31, Cape Town, WCActress 	 	 	 	6 	
 	Letshego Moshoeu27, Johannesburg, GPBiokeniticist 	 	 	Runner-Up 	4 	
 	Hykie Berg32, Johannesburg, GPActor 	 	 	Ultimate Survivor 	7 	
==Season Summary==
This season's cast consisted of nineteen castaways, consisting of ten regular South Africans (referred to as "plebs") and 9 celebrities (referred to as "celebs"). Initially separated on two different islands based on their status, each group was unaware of the other group's existence. Both groups were randomly into two teams, simply referred to as "blue" and "yellow"), that would later become the official tribes of Goma and Raituhn respective. Due to an odd number of "celebs", one castaway (Philicity Reeken) drew a black sandbag and not be part of either team. The "celebs" competed in a Reward Challenge and were not subjected to a Tribal Council. After the "plebs" on the blue team lost the first Immunity Challenge and voted out Lukhanyo Nontshinga, the 18 remaining castaways formed the Goma tribe (composed of both blue teams) and Raituhn tribe (composed of both yellow teams) and competed in their next Reward Challenge. Each tribe then voted for the castaway they believed was "least cut out to be in the game of Survivor" - Alison de Chazal on Goma and Tasleem Vally on Raituhn received the most votes, and they both received a Black Cowrie shell, which added a vote against them at each Tribal Council before the merge until they either decided to defect to the other tribe before an Immunity Challenge or were voted out.
After the unification, the "celebs" on Raituhn were initially down in numbers due to a clear divide where the "plebs" consistently outnumbered them. On Goma, both Roxy Burger and Philicity Reeken were targeted as they were considered to be weak physical links, and Jacques Terre'Blanche was targeted due to a perceived lack of will to stay in the game. After Raituhn won immunity, the "celebs" on Goma ultimately joined forces with Sean September in order to vote out Philicity in a plurality, as she was also unable to bond with some of her tribemates. Raituhn remained largely split into "celebs" and "plebs", with Tshepo Maseko being voted out after these "plebs" maintained their majority alliance.
After a second Immunity Challenge loss, the "plebs" and "celebs" joined forces to vote out Tasleem as she was perceived to be the weakest physical link on the tribe. She passed her Black Cowrie shell to Bonnie Henna as she was also considered to be physically weak. Raituhn then lost their third Immunity Challenge in a row, and the "plebs" re-established their majority in order to vote out Carmel Fisher, which particularly angered Hykie Berg, who grew especially fond of Carmel and was growing sick of Harry Wiggins, who was perceived to be overly scheming.
Shortly after Carmel was voted out, Jacques announced he wanted to quit as he was becoming unable to handle the harsh conditions of the game - namely the lack of food and suffering more harshly from the effects of his vitiligo than normally. After winning the next Reward Challenge in a duel, Jacques quit prior to starting the next Immunity Challenge. Goma subsequently lost the next Immunity Challenge, and the "plebs" had established a clear majority after MXO Lokwe flipped to their alliance. This led to the closely aligned Roxy Burger and Vanessa Haywood falling into the minority. However, Vanessa discovered a clue to the location of the Hidden Immunity Idol and later found it in the shallow waters of the beach. Roxy would later successfully play this idol on Vanessa and allowing the pair to blindside Sindi Lukhele uncontested.
Prior to the Day 15 Reward Challenge, it was announced that a Double Tribal Council would occur that evening. During the challenge, whilst competing against Bonnie Henna, Vanessa suffered an injury to her neck and was evacuated from the game. The challenge would continue, with Goma losing once again. Now without any alliances, Roxy found herself on the chopping block. Despite campaigning for MXO's elimination by calling him out for being a wildcard, Roxy received votes from all of her tribemates, eliminating her without much contention. On Raituhn, Bonnie, despite being closely aligned with Hykie (who was campaigning for Harry to be voted out) had grown suspicious of Malusi Mbambo and found his perceived unpredictable gameplay to be threatening as the merge was approaching. Harry continued to target Hykie for being a threat. Ultimately, Harry received votes from all of his tribemates besides Bonnie, eliminating him.
At the merge feast, Bonnie found the White Cowrie shell, which gave her the power to nullify a single vote at any Tribal Council whilst casting her vote. Raituhn had entered the merge in a narrow 5-4 majority as a partial consequence of the unexpected exits of Jacques and Vanessa. Votes initially remained on old tribal lines, and all the former Raituhn members voted out Goma's leader, Simon Coetzer. Following Bonnie's continued campaign for his elimination, Malusi ended up receiving votes from all of his former Raituhn tribemates, but none from the former Goma members. As Malusi and the old former Goma members voted sporadically, Malusi was blindsided in a 4-2-1-1 plurality vote.
Following several heated arguments back at camp and at Tribal Council, between Hykie and Tejan Pillay over morality and deception in the game, old tribal alliances collapsed. Bonnie and Hykie turned on their former Raituhn tribe members Tejan and Letshego Moshoeu by extensively campaigning for Tejan's elimination due to his apparent repeated lying, whereas Tejan responded by saying Hykie was acting similarly and was much more of a threat in the game. Ultimately, Tejan was voted out in a 4-0 vote as a Hidden Immunity Idol was played to save Hykie, though Tejan received the majority of the votes and would have been voted out regardless.
At the final six, Bonnie and Hykie won back the allegiance of Letshego, re-establishing old alliances of former Goma and former Raituhn members. After not being picked to go on the reward due to being in the opposite alliance, the three former Raituhn members were each given a satchel containing food back at camp, with Letshego picking a bag that concealed a Hidden Immunity Idol. She decided to share this information with Bonnie and Hykie. After Hykie won the Immunity Challenge, the Raituhn members guaranteed their safety by using the Immunity Necklace, the White Cowrie shell and the Hidden Immunity Idol within their alliance. Hykie gave up immunity to Bonnie, allowing Bonnie to play the White Cowrie shell on Hykie, and Letshego played her Hidden Immunity Idol on herself, negating all three votes from the former Goma members. This allowed Bonnie, Hykie and Letshego to vote out Sean, who was considered to be the biggest physical challenge threat on Goma. 
This left Alison and MXO in the minority, and both desperately tried to convince Letshego to flip to their alliance, believing that Bonnie and Hykie were so tightly-aligned that they would take each other to the Final Two should Letshego stick with her alliance and lose the Final Immunity Challenge. This seemingly angered both Bonnie and Hykie, with Bonnie in particular expressing significant disdain for both the former Goma members. After winning a third Individual Immunity Challenge, Letshego decided to stick with her Raituhn alliance to vote out Alison, as she seemed to earn significant ire from Bonnie, despite her being less of an Immunity Challenge threat. This left MXO without any allies. Without any other strategies, MXO joked about pretending to have found a Hidden Immunity Idol in the next boat mail and tried to convince Letshego to vote with him. After he refused to show Letshego the "idol" hidden in his shirt pocket, she reassured Bonnie and Hykie that idols were no longer in play and all thought MXO was stroking his ego. In the second part of the final four Immunity Challenge, MXO narrowly lost out to Bonnie in a race to make fire and light a torch, to the cheers of Hykie and Letshego. MXO criticised the trio for ostracising him, reminding him of his negative experiences in school about not fitting in. Despite host Nico Panagio challenging the trio's allegiances and treatment of MXO, as well as the latter's campaigning, the last remaining former Goma member's fate was all but sealed by this Immunity Challenge loss, and he was voted out 3-1.
After a shock Final Immunity Challenge win by Letshego, she voted out Bonnie as she was forced to break up their alliance. At the Final Tribal Council, the jury criticized both Letshego's and Hykie's poor social games as well as failing to answer some of their questions, but most felt that Hykie's cutthroat strategic game while being tightly-aligned with Bonnie was more deserving than Letshego's under-the-radar game. During the finale, the public's jury vote was revealed first, and was awarded to Hykie. In the end, Hykie defeated Letshego in an 8-3 vote and became the Ultimate Survivor.
==Voting History==
==Trivia==
*Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa to feature an odd number of castaways.
**As a result, Maldives is the second season of Survivor South Africa to have an uneven gender divide, after . This season featured 9 women compared to 10 men.
* The intro for the season premiere of Maldives divides the castaways by "Celebs" and "Plebs", with the names of the "Celebs" being labelled in blue (corresponding to Goma, whose name translates to "famous") and the "Plebs" being labelled in yellow (corresponding to Raituhn, whose name translates to "common man").
*Maldives is the first season in any English-language version of Survivor to have three people eliminated on the same day.
* Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa to not feature a tribe switch.
* Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa to have the jury phase begin before the merge.
* At the time, Maldives set the franchise record for the largest jury, with 10 jurors.
* Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa where every contestant received elimination votes.
*Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa to have a male winner.
*Maldives is the earliest season of Survivor South Africa to produce a returning player.
*Maldives is the first season of Survivor South Africa to feature multiple versions of the intro titles.
==References==
Category:Survivor South Africa
Category:Survivor South Africa Seasons
Category:Survivor South Africa: Maldives
Category:Seasons