We are seated next to a blooming pink photo-booth. It’s a faux bougainvillea from your wildest Instagram dreams. Behind us a gigantic whirligig of lights sets the pastel tones of EL&N, a confection of a restaurant in the Mall of Africa where Ndavi Nokeri suggests we meet for lunch.
As we tuck into an excellent sourdough pizza and pasta, a steady stream of Christmas shoppers pose in the booth behind us and Ndavi graciously smiles when they realise they are in proximity to a former Miss South Africa.
She has also just made it to the finals of Tropika Island of Treasure but she sticks to her NDA and manages to keep her secrets to herself. I quickly gather that her most impressive quality may be her way with a gracious deflection of invasive questions. She bats them away with style.
She grew up in Tzaneen, Limpopo, a place she returns to regularly for her peace of mind and its restorative and abundant nature. I wonder if she was always drawn to pageantry and she explains it was her mother who initially set her on the path.
“My mom was constantly pushing me into it because I was so shy, so she wanted to get me out of my comfort zone. When I got to high school, we had one for the school — Meneer en Mejuffrou Vossie — and everyone was like, you need to do it. And so I did that pageant and it was so much fun.
It was like a little group project for my family as well, who came together for the recycling section. We made a dress out of plastic bags and it was the most extraordinary thing. I won that pageant, and my dad got this idea that this girl should continue. And so when I went to university, he started sending me information for different pageants, like, what about this one? Did you want to try this one?”
Ndavi studied finance at the University of Pretoria and had just started working at Allan Gray when she entered Miss South Africa. “My parents are very supportive. And so I left the job with no certainty that I was even in the top 10. I was only in the top 30 at the time. When I made it to the top 10, I was so happy.”
She is clear about why pageantry was such an empowering decision for her. “I think when you're surrounded by such strong women, women who know what they stand for, women who are very confident, it's so easy to compare yourself. I quickly had to learn that instead of comparing myself, I needed to learn from them. And when the finale came, honestly, it was just lots of preparation, lots of research, lots of interviews with my friends. They would ask me so many questions. And also lots of prayer. Because it's so huge, it's so intimidating. When you look at the panel, when you have Prof Thuli Madonsela, public protector, you have all these incredible women, and you have to stand in front of the entire country and share your thoughts.”
I think when you're surrounded by such strong women, women who know what they stand for, women who are very confident, it's so easy to compare yourself
The question she was asked on the night was directly linked to her passion project. “I just had to speak from the heart. That was the thing that I was most passionate about — inequality. I mean, I was raised in a village. I had friends in the village, and I was fortunate enough to go to schools outside the village. So I saw the disparity in how, because I'm going to a better school than my friends in the village, my future looks entirely different to theirs. So once I was given the platform, it was a no-brainer for me that this is what I'm going to advocate for — equal education. And so that's where my final answer came from. And I guess that helped me take the crown.”
She has subsequently set up a foundation and a podcast that work on these issues.
I ask her what her pinch-me moment was from that year. “Definitely representing the country at Miss Universe. My first time in the States. This girl from a small town, in New York. It was just so incredible. I watched Miss Universe every year. That was such a big thing for me to try to comprehend and reconcile in my mind — that I dreamt of this and now I'm here, representing my country.”
She has taken the same open-hearted and disciplined approach to her next steps in life. She is registered for a master's programme at Wits next year and is venturing back into the world of high finance. Turning to the fun side of her life, I ask her how she fared so well on Tropika Island of Treasure.
“I did high-intensity interval training and endurance for an entire year before the show. And I was playing a lot of puzzles to get my mind in the right place. But honestly, the biggest thing was just to get myself out of my comfort zone. I knew it was going to test me. I had the best time of my life. Honestly.”
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