Santoni Engelbrecht

Santoni Engelbrecht is a contestant from Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island.

One of the major characters of Immunity Island, Santoni developed a reputation for being a blab but, despite her indiscretions, was often roped in as a critical swing vote at numerous pre-merge Tribal Councils, while her mercurial temperament fueled several early blindsides. Following the merge, Santoni remained committed to her alliance with Chappies Chapman and Anesu Mbizvo, but her game was on the rocks after the trio fell into the minority when the Vuna Alliance split up. Despite apparently having a game-saving blindside on Kiran Naidoo lined up at the final six, Santoni was betrayed by Anela Majozi. Offered one last shot to stay in the game when Nicole Wilmans played her Fire Idol, Santoni narrowly lost to her rival Tyson Zulu and left the game in sixth place.

Profile[]

It's a case of 'fourth time's the charm' for online business owner Santoni Engelbrecht (39, from Strand), as she finally got her wish of becoming a Survivor SA castaway after three previous attempts. "I love the dynamics of the show and always wanted to enter. I'm such a 'non-Survivor-looking person' and I wanted to show people that anything is possible if you put your mind to it," she says.

Survivor South Africa[]

Entering the game wearing a tie-dye shirt, Santoni immediately stood out from her castmates, and attention was drawn to her from the outset. After a random draw, she found herself on the Vuna tribe, where she aligned with Chappies Chapman and Paul Cupido. Following Vuna's victory at the first Immunity Challenge, the tribe was ready to send Zamba's Dino Paulo to Immunity Island, but Santoni succeeded in persuading them to send Thoriso M-Afrika instead, hoping to start a trend of saving weaker players. This worked out for her after Vuna lost their only Immunity Challenge in the next episode, when Zamba sent her to Immunity Island; she won the "Stay and Play" challenge and learned that a Hidden Immunity Idol was hidden at Tribal Council. She also found a clue to an idol back at camp. At Vuna's first Tribal Council, Santoni decided to keep her idol in its hiding spot until she needed to play it. She abstained from the vote, but her allies found themselves blindsided when Pinty Nkanjeni was sent home instead of Mike Laws.

At the tribe switch, Santoni was swapped onto the new Zamba tribe, which held a Vuna majority. Zamba proceeded to lose every remaining challenge, forcing Santoni to attend every remaining pre-merge Tribal Council. She took the opportunity to align with the minority Zamba Alliance, hoping to employ a pendulum strategy to break up the alliances formed on the original Vuna tribe. She first joined her original allies Chappies and Paul in exacting revenge against Mike, Carla Gubb, and Wardah Hartley by blindsiding the former; then, she got tired of Paul's arrogance and laziness and voted him out, leaving Chappies blindsided. At the Double Tribal Council, Santoni consummated her plan by voting off Carla to break up her bond with Wardah. However, this last play put her in a precarious position heading into the second tribe switch where, after she stayed on Zamba, but was joined by Wardah and her original allies Kiran Naidoo and Tyson Zulu. Fortunately, the original Vunas agreed to stay strong and voted out Dino and Qieän Wang over the next two Tribal Councils. During this time, Santoni played her Tribal Council idol out of insurance, and also helped Tyson to find his second Hidden Immunity Idol at the Zamba camp, following which she expressed frustration at not keeping the clue to herself.

After making it to the merge, Santoni regrouped with her ally Chappies, but was torn between staying Vuna-strong or going with the Zamba Alliance that she had worked with after the first tribe switch. She decided to play double agent alongside Anesu Mbizvo, but confirmed that her allegiance was to the Vuna Alliance. After being informed that Chappies was the target, Santoni helped to hatch a plan to blindside Marisha du Plessis, but to tell the Zambas that they were targeting Nicole Wilmans. At Tribal Council, Santoni ditched her double-agent plan and voted with the Vunas against Marisha; after Tyson played his idol for Chappies and Renier Louwrens incorrectly played his idol for Nicole, the Vunas won out and Marisha was blindsided 5-0.

The Marisha blindside caused the Zambas to react with indignation, especially towards Santoni. Unclear as to why she was the only one bearing the blame, she ratted Anesu out as a double agent to the Zambas, much to the latter's chagrin. Still, the Vunas held the majority and continued their pagonging of the Zambas, first by taking out Shaun Wilson, then by eliminating Renier and Amy Eliason together during the Tied Destinies cycle.

Knowing that the alliance had to break up, Santoni stuck with Chappies and Anesu to form the "Destiny Three" pact and intended to blindside Tyson at their first opportunity. To increase their odds, Chappies sent Santoni to Immunity Island to retrieve an idol. Unfortunately, narrowly losing the "Stay and Play" challenge cost Santoni half her money at the upcoming auction, to her great disappointment. Worse, at Tribal Council, Santoni witnessed helplessly as the remaining Zambas Nicole and Anela Majozi sided with her rivals Tyson, Wardah, and Kiran to blindside Anesu, leaving herself and Chappies in the minority. However, Anesu left Chappies her Tribal Council Pass and gave the pair another weapon in their arsenal.

After the auction on Day 29, tempers flared at the Osindile camp when the tribe discovered that Chappies had hoarded a portion of his auction winnings in his bag. Another point of conflict stemmed from Wardah trying to stash the rice supply she had won from the tribe in the auction, which she justified as a disincentive to keep her from being voted out. The tension came to a head at Tribal Council as the entire tribe debated the ethics of food hoarding, during which Santoni stepped up as an advocate for Chappies, sharing that some of the castaways making the accusations against him had themselves smuggled food back during a previous reward to share with the tribe. By the end of the night, Chappies had used his Tribal Council Pass to send Anela back to camp, hoping to use this as an olive branch to establish an alliance; Santoni had played her idol for herself; and Wardah was sent home in a 2-0 vote.

When the tribe returned to camp, the bad blood between the two rival factions continued, but they temporarily laid down their weapons during the family visit, where Santoni met her sister and told her about her idol plays. After the Immunity Challenge, Santoni was on high alert as she realized she was likely on the chopping block. However, she was able to connect with Nicole and Anela, both of whom expressed an interest in breaking up Kiran and Tyson. Anela proposed piling their votes on Kiran, but Santoni suggested splitting the votes between the duo instead. Anela was irritated that his plan had fallen out of his hands and reneged, blabbing the plan to Kiran. At Tribal Council, Anela was on the hot seat for his confusing betrayal and reverse-betrayal, while Santoni called out Kiran for not being open with her, to which he responded that he did not owe her his trust. In the end, Anela sided with Tyson and Kiran against Santoni, but Nicole played the Fire Idol and gave her one last chance to stay alive. With the votes coming back 3-2-0 (with Kiran having played an idol), Santoni competed against Tyson in a fire-making challenge. Despite being the first one to start a fire, Santoni narrowly lost to Tyson and became the fifth member of the jury.

At Final Tribal Council, Santoni directed her statement towards Anela, making it clear that she had no respect for his ego and inconsistent loyalties, and that she would vote for Nicole instead. Her vote helped Nicole win the title of Sole Survivor in a landslide 8-1 vote.

Voting History[]

Episode	Santoni's Votes	Voted Against Santoni
1	Vuna Tribe Immune
2	Ineligible¹	Individual Immunity
3	Mike	-
4	Paul	-
5	Carla	-
6	Dino	~~Dino, Qieän~~²
7	Qieän	Qieän
8	Marisha	-
9	Shaun	-
10	Renier	-
11	Ineligible³	Individual Immunity
12	Wardah	~~Kiran, Tyson, Wardah~~⁴
13	Tyson	Anela, Kiran, Tyson⁵
Eliminated, Day 33
Voted for Sole Survivor	Nicole

^1 In "I Can Go 'Bos'... No Pun!", Santoni was exiled to Immunity Island and chose to Stay and Play, making her ineligible to vote at Tribal Council.
^2 In "Control the Flow", Santoni used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 2 votes against her.
^3 In "Brownie Points Are Everything", Santoni was exiled to Immunity Island and chose to Stay and Play, making her ineligible to vote at Tribal Council.
^4 In "All in a Day's Work", Santoni used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 3 votes against her.
^5 In "A Very Weird Vibe", Nicole used a Fire Idol, forcing the two players with the highest number of votes to compete in a fire-making challenge. Santoni and Tyson received the most votes respectively. Santoni lost the challenge and was eliminated from the game.

Post-Survivor[]

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Trivia[]

Santoni applied for Survivor South Africa three times in the past before she was cast for Immunity Island.^[1]
Santoni is the highest-placing woman of the original Vuna tribe.