Seated at the table in his sparsely decorated residence room sits Imraan Callum Adjiet.
In many respects, Imraan is like any ordinary first-year student at Stellenbosch University; he attends lectures, goes to the gym and dreams of entrepreneurial success.
There is little that separates this Langebaan native from any other student, all except for that Imraan is now considered one of the 20 most desirable men in South Africa.
Mr SA top 20 finalist and Stellenbosch University student – Imraan Callum Adjiet IMAGE: Zoe Human
The 21-year-old BCom Management Science student won his first male beauty pageant when he became Mr Vredenburg in 2014. Having told his high school teacher eight years ago of his dream to become Mr South Africa, Imraan finally went for it when he applied for the pageant this year.
While Imraan didn’t win the pageant, making the finals was a feat in itself. He believes his downfall in the contest was his age. He says, “Mr SA has to be financially independent”, especially due to all the travelling costs. Imraan believes he has what it takes to eventually become Mr SA. He sees himself applying again, but only in five years – when he can financially support a Mr SA lifestyle.
In April, Imraan’s photo along with 19 other Mr South Africa 2019 finalists was released on the pageant’s Twitter page. The pageant instantly began trending post-announcement but for all the wrong reasons. Many took to social media to poke fun at the standard set by the pageant, especially when compared to the Miss SA pageant.
The post that caused a stir and received so much backlash. It was eventually deleted from the Mr SA twitter page. IMAGE: Twitter/ Mr SA.
Imraan suggests the reasoning for the poorly shot images was due to Mr SA “being bought over last year by JP Roberts and [him having] a limited budget to work with.” The photos were taken from cell phones.
When asked how he perceived the responses to the post Imraan said “The comments were hilarious and you know at the end of the day, even after the bad social media, it brought us closer as a group.”
He goes on to suggest that no publicity is bad publicity. As a result of the post going viral, the pageant organisers were approached by Top Billing and received sponsorship from Adidas.