Down-to-earth Miss World can't wait for a family braai

Rolene Strauss wears her Miss World crown with grace. But deep down, the 23-year-old is just a small-town girl, yearning for a good braai and time with her family.

Strauss arrived to a grand reception at OR Tambo Airport early yesterday, leaving her overwhelmed and tearful.

''It was amazing, it completely exceeded my expectations. I felt proudly South African coming home. I felt at home as soon as the plane's wheels touched the ground," she said.

Today, Strauss will have her real homecoming when she is driven through her home town, Volksrust, in Mpumalanga.

''I can't wait, I'm so excited. Ever since I was a little girl they have supported me. I want to show them I'm still the same shoeless little girl running around in the streets. I love my town," said Strauss.

Being away in London for a month made her yearn for South African meat. ''The one thing I really miss is a good braai, oxtail and vegetables."

The beauty queen said she felt honoured and proud to have won the title, but laughed off pressure to be prefect. ''A lot of people idolise you because you wear a crown, they think you're a princess. I want to show people I'm human," she said.

Strauss is the first Miss South Africa to win an international pageant in 36 years, since Margaret Gardiner became Miss Universe in 1978.

Four years earlier, in 1974, a teenage Anneline Kriel stepped in to take the Miss World title from Britain's Helen Morgan, who had to resign after it was discovered that she had an 18-month-old son. The first South African to win the title was Penny Coelen Rey, crowned Miss World in 1958, aged just 18.

Strauss, a fourth-year medical student at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, was the hot favourite to win this year's pageant.

The brunette bombshell was a "miracle baby" - conceived through in vitro fertilisation after her parents battled for five years to have a child.

Before the final in London, Strauss told the Sunday Times she had been wearing a lucky charm, "a little sapphire ring", since arriving in the British capital on November 20. "It reminds me of home, my family and loved ones," she said.

Professor Gert van Zyl, dean of the faculty of health sciences at the university, said: "Rolene has proved herself to be a dedicated, hard-working and enthusiastic young woman. These qualities will make her an exceptional Miss World."

Meanwhile, the organisers of Miss World have announced that the pageant will no longer feature a swimsuit competition.

The iconic "bikini round" has been ditched after 63 years.

Miss World's chairwoman, Julia Morley, 74, told Elle magazine: "I don't need to see women just walking up and down in bikinis. It doesn't do anything for the woman. And it doesn't do anything for any of us.

"I don't care if someone has a bottom two inches bigger than someone else's. We are really not looking at her bottom. We are listening to her speak."

In 1951, the first Miss World winner, Sweden's Kiki Håkansson, was crowned on stage wearing a bikini. Since then, the swimsuit round has been a major round of the pageant.

In 2001, organisers took the decision to do a private photo-shoot so contestants no longer had to parade in front of a live audience. It was renamed the "beach fashion" round, and continued until it was cancelled last year, so as to not offend Muslims in Indonesia, the host country.

Feminists, including the handful protesting outside the event last week, have criticised the swimsuit round for objectifying women.

Meanwhile, slipping into her role as the new Miss South Africa on Wednesday with just three months left of the reign, Ziphozakhe Zokufa thought her pageant days were over.

Now the 23-year-old Port Elizabeth beauty will head off to represent South Africa at the Miss Universe pageant in Miami, Florida, next month.

When she got the call that she might have to step into the Miss South Africa role, Zokufa was in Hong Kong.

- Additional reporting ©The Telegraph