Miss Universe South Africa Bryoni Govender has been named one of the Top 10 silver finalists in Miss Universe 2023’s Voice For Change and remains one of the front-runners to take the Miss Universe title.
During Voice for Change, Govender spoke about her advocacy campaign Her Way Out, the main objective of which is to take up the cudgels on behalf of women everywhere and help educate them on their legal rights.
To make her campaign as effective as possible, Govender has teamed up with the Social Impact team at global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to focus on, amongst others, access to justice projects. Govender has also been appointed as an ambassador for the public benefit organisation Lawyers against Abuse (LvA).
The Voice for Change selection committee included people from all over the world who have created an impact in the society with their outstanding work and comprised Prof. Jonathan Levav – The King Philanthropies Professor of Marketing, Stanford GSB; Prof. Leonard Schlesinger – Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School; Andrea Meza – Miss Universe 2020 from Mexico; Cemrenaz Turhan – Miss Universe Turkey 2021, entrepreneur; Fahsai Paweensuda Drouin – co-founder CI Talks, Miss Universe Thailand 2019, Miss Universe 2019 Top 5 finalist; Gabriëla Dos Santos – Miss Universe Curaçao 2022, Miss Universe 2022 Top 5 finalist, certified life coach; Janick Maceta Del Castillo – Miss Universe Peru 2020, Miss Universe 2020 second runner-up, audio engineer; Mia Mamede – Miss Universe Brazil 2022; Nadia Ali – Head of Global Experts Relations for the Hult Prize Foundation; Pascal Gerken – CEO GerkenSA, Global YPO Chairman Emeritus and Sameera Shah – Board Member, Mega Lifesciences PCL.
The three gold Voice for Change winners will be announced during the Miss Universe pageant finale which takes place in El Salvador on Saturday (November 18) and will be broadcast live on SABC 3 (DStv Channel 193) from 03h00 on Sunday (November 19) and repeated later the same day at 20h00. They will each receive a R218 000 ($12,000) cash prize.
This week Govender also revealed another of her pageant dresses, a stunning gold preliminary gown designed by William de Beer, designer and owner of Willet Designs Couture. It was inspired by the rich mineral landscape of South Africa.
South Africans are encouraged to vote for Govender with online voting now open via the official Miss Universe app; the contestant earning the most votes gets an automatic placement in the semi-finals.