After surviving 39 harsh and hungry days – and the ruthless scrutiny of the fierce jury members on M-Net’s "Survivor SA: Island of Secrets" – Rob Bentele (28) from Richard’s Bay, nabbed the title of Sole Survivor at the live finale in Cape Town.
Not only did Rob win the R1 million prize money and the prestigious title, season seven’s beloved kingpin also received the most votes in the Mahindra Fan Favourite competition, making him the new owner of a sporty Mahindra KUV100 NXT K8 petrol model to the value of R205 000. Rob also walks away with a voucher to the value of R10 000 from Cape Union Mart.
The robust and strategic "Survivor" player, attributes his win to his ability to control the game, by using the power of information and the Island of Secrets to his advantage.
He trusted the right people within the game and stayed true to his alliance which enabled him to predict every vote and control it with precision.
Rob played a powerful social game but also dominated the challenges, having nabbed multiple Individual Immunity wins, wearing the necklace at five Tribal Councils, protecting him from a vote.
This year three castaways made it to the final Tribal Council; Kingpin Rob, former Mrs South Africa Nicole Capper, as well as Rob’s post-merge informant, Durāo Mariano, who all stated their case to win over the jolted jury, who interrogated and probed to determine who deserves their vote and the title of Sole Survivor.
Although the announcement was made during the live two-hour finale, the ten jury members had cast their votes for the Final Tribal Council before they had left the beautiful island of Samoa and Tannie Laetitia also joined the jury bench as the tenth member.
Nicole believed that she fought harder than anybody and received four votes, two from her former Amigos – Seipei and Steffi and the other two from Jacques and Cobus. Rob garnered the majority of votes, with Danté, Meryl, Mmaba, Mike, Laetitia and Geoffrey all respecting the game that he played.