In this week’s tense Dancing With The Stars SA live results show voted to keep ex-soccer pro Delron Buckley in the competition, sending rugby legend Thando Manana home after a dramatic sporting dance-off.
The big ex-Springbok and his partner had earned themselves the nickname of “Team Teddy Bear” over the past six weeks, after the judges referred to Thando as a “gentle giant” in Week 3.
The four judges complimented Thando’s technical dancing progress throughout the past few weeks – as well as his dramatic weight loss of a whopping 14 kilograms along the way - but Judge
Bryan Watson remarked tonight, however, that unfortunately Thando was challenged with a very difficult dance, the Samba.
READ: #DWTSSA - From ballroom to casualty ward
Diski star Delron Buckley entered the competition low on the leader board, but gradually worked his way up over the past few weeks to where this week the judges raved that he was “turning into a tiger”.
Tonight was the second time that Thando found himself in the bottom two dance pairs. Two episodes ago the twinkle toed teddy bear beat TV personality Thembisa Mdoda and her partner Devon Snell in a gruelling dance-off, thus surviving the competition to its half-way mark this evening.
It's #TeamTeddyBear's time to bid #DWTSSA goodbye 🐻
We'll miss you @TandoManana, and mad LOVE to @MichOppenshaw❤️ pic.twitter.com/Z3f1miLCv6
— M-Net (@MNet) March 11, 2018
Last week Jason Gilkison commented that the “performer” inside of Thando came out in that dance-off performance against Thembisa, but unfortunately his Samba didn’t allow that performer to shine again.
An emotional Thando thanked his mother in the audience and his partner, Michelle Oppenshaw. “She’s been phenomenal,” he said. “I have nothing more to prove to anyone,” he commented.
In tribute to these two legends of the South African sports arena, three legends of the entertainment world performed in tonight’s live Results Show to relieve the tension as Dancing With The Stars SA host Chris Jaftha announced the voting results: SAMA winners Loyiso Bala, Danny K, and L’loyd Cele, performing a Motown medley.
The vote count and ranking of contestants is done according to the international format rules and was independently computed by Deloitte and Touche and confirmed against the vote results determined by M-Net.