Survivor South Africa - Season 7

First aired: 5/16/2019 18 episodes

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 centred 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.

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Episodes

1. I Just Want to Fix Your Crown

Aired: 5/16/2019

The three tribes were tasked to designate a tribe leader. Cobus, Paul, and Rocco were chosen for Ta'alo, Sa'ula, and Laumei respectively. The leaders had to pick their tribe's weakest player (Jacques, Seipei, and Laetitia were respectively chosen). However, the three leaders were informed they were being exiled to the Island of Secrets for the first night of the game immediately, while their tribe's weakest players were assigned to crucial roles for the reward challenge. Once at the Island of Secrets, the three leaders were given tribal dilemmas: a clue to a hidden immunity idol at their camps, or flint. While Rocco was the only one to choose flint for his tribe, he dug through Paul's jeans to have a look at the hidden immunity idol clue when he was alone.

2. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Aired: 5/23/2019

Paul approached Nicole after Sa'ula's first Tribal Council with concerns about a sub-alliance forming within the Amigos, suggesting that Nicole, Steffi, and himself align first. Cobus shared his idol clue with Jacques in the early morning, and the two started looking by their tribe's well. Jacques found the hidden immunity idol from under Cobus' nose and hid it with his secret advantage. Meanwhile Ta'alo's patience with Tania was wearing thin, as Felix and Tania clashed during the rain for space in the shelter. Rocco tried to lead the Laumei men to consider voting out Mmaba at the first opportunity, while Mike and Geoffrey initially targeted Laetitia for her age. However, once they noticed that Rocco was defending Laetitia, Mike rallied Geoffrey, Mmaba, and Rose-Lee against Rocco.

3. The Gods Have Smiled Upon Me

Aired: 5/30/2019

In awe of their sudden blindside of Paul, the Amigos officially brought Seipei into the alliance, but the relief was short-lived when it was discovered that Paul had possession of the tribe's flint as he left the game. This was yet another kick to Sa'ula's morale in desperate need of a challenge win.

4. I'm Not Gonna Buy This B.S.

Aired: 6/6/2019

After his blunder with the idol at Tribal Council, Jacques felt that he had completely burnt his game with the Ta'alo tribe, yet he chose to lie about how he found the idol by claiming that he got a clue during the first reward challenge. The men at Ta'alo were confounded by Jacques' idol reveal and play. Jacques' wishes for a tribe swap were granted that morning, with the tribes reshuffling into three tribes of six.

5. It's Time for a Hail Mary

Aired: 6/13/2019

Despite being on the bottom of the new Laumei, Durão started to bond with Jacques as a means of moving forward, while Felix expressed frustration about being forced to work with Jacques and Tania to survive the new Laumei.

6. Let Them Play Barbie and Ken

Aired: 6/20/2019

After the successful blindside of Felix, Jacques revealed to the rest of Laumei that he had both the Laumei idol and the merge vote advantage. The four bonded and formed an alliance dubbed the Band of Misfits. Cobus and Steffi were concerned about Nathan's desire to remain in the game after trying to throw the previous immunity challenge, while Danté stole Ta'alo's flint to weaken Rob's standing among the tribe.

7. The Game Chooses for You

Aired: 6/27/2019

Day 15 started with treemail suggesting a tribe shuffle or merge. The Band of Misfits decided that whatever happened, no one else must know about the Laumei idol. Standing at the reward challenge, the players were tasked with picking between 15 bowls of paint, indicating their new tribe colours

8. Putting My Foot in My Mouth

Aired: 7/4/2019

Danté's frustration with the original Laumei members' lack of contribution at camp was beginning to create animosity in Sa'ula. Nathan decided to capitalize on the tension to shift any attention on him and Nicole, and to solidify a partnership with Geoffrey and Mmaba in a potential merge.

9. Are You Crying?

Aired: 7/11/2019

After Tribal Council, Danté and Meryl argued with Nicole over Nathan's blindside and the plot to flush Meryl's idol. The next morning, the 13 remaining players were merged into a single tribe, Manumalo. Rob was stunned to see that Sa'ula had voted out Nathan. At the merge feast, Geoffrey took note of Danté and Meryl's strategizing, while Nicole tried to explain her betrayal to the remaining Amigos.

10. He's Delicious-Looking...

Aired: 7/18/2019

Despite the close vote at Tribal Council, Geoffrey was in good spirits about his allegiances in the new Manumalo, while Rob was glad that the Spit-Shake Seven alliance had yet to be discovered. However, both Geoffrey and Nicole started to notice how allies were running towards Rob for strategic advice around camp.

11. The Puppetmaster

Aired: 7/25/2019

While Rob and Seipei's plan to eliminate Geoffrey went down perfectly, Mmaba was left distraught with Mike's betrayal of their Day 1 alliance from the original Laumei tribe. Seipei's social game throughout the camp was becoming more apparent to Laetitia and Rob, with the latter learning that Seipei intended to get rid of the other women in the Amigo alliance after the Spit-Shake alliance takes out Danté and Laetitia.

12. One Trick Pony

Aired: 8/1/2019

While Danté was left frustrated with the original Laumei members in not voting out Rob, Jacques and Cobus confronted Rob about leaving them out of Seipei's blindside. The morning after, knowing that the others were not listening to him, Danté resigned himself to saving his strength for the immunity challenge.

13. Trouble Council

Aired: 8/8/2019

Despite being included in the vote for Danté, Cobus and Jacques were frustrated that the Spit-Shake alliance were leaving them out of the loop, while Steffi was frustrated that Jacques didn't fall for the Amigos' pressure to flush out his idol. Trust within the Spit-Shake alliance left Cobus, Jacques, and even Nicole feeling vulnerable with how the last two Tribal Councils went.

14. The Biggest Mother-

Aired: 8/15/2019

As Manumalo returned to camp, Steffi told the tribe she accidentally voted for Cobus when the plan was to either vote Jacques out with the idol or flush it out of the game. While the tribe congratulated Jacques for his bold move, he openly declared that he would use his idol to take out the biggest player left if the rest of the tribe targeted him at the next Tribal Council, and the others reacted in shock and disgust by the language he used.

15. The Lightbulbs Are Switching On

Aired: 8/22/2019

As the tribe returned to camp, Rob initially did damage control with Mike, explaining that Mmaba had an advantage, but lied that the alliance didn't want to force Mike to betray another ally like Geoffrey. The Amigos and Laetitia were grateful that Jacques had finally used his idol and was left exposed.

16. Someone You Can Trust

Aired: 8/29/2019

After Jacques' ouster, a shellshocked Steffi decided that Rob's control of the votes was over, but that she had to make him see remaining loyalty from her. Rob tried to explain that he was trying to protect Laetitia and her in the event that Jacques had an idol, and that the Amigos were still tight.

17. Icarus

Aired: 9/5/2019

After successfully removing Mike from the game, Laetitia, Nicole, and Steffi gathered after returning to camp, solidifying their plans to blindside Rob next with an idol in his pocket. Meanwhile, a rattled Durão struggled to accept that he had been betrayed by Rob the entire merge and felt defeated.

18. Action Speaks Louder

Aired: 9/12/2019

Laetitia was left stunned at Nicole's betrayal at the previous Tribal Council, and dismissed Nicole's apology as lies. Meanwhile, Durão was still struggling to believe that he was in the game. Rob was happy with Nicole's poor jury management and felt that the only things left to survive were Laetitia's vote nullifier and the last immunity challenge.