- Anesu Mbizvo is the 13th castaway to get her torch snuffed after a blindside from her alliance.
- The 29-year-old attempted to break up the power trio of Tyson, Wardah and Kiran but instead got voted off.
- "My plan really hinged on Anela and Nicole and their swing of the vote ended up being my demise," said Anesu.
Medical doctor and yoga teacher Anesu Mbizvo, 29, from Johannesburg is the 13th castaway to get her torch snuffed on Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island after a blindside from her alliance.
She secretly handed her unused Tribal Council Pass to Chappies as he swore to exact revenge on her behalf.
WATCH HER GET VOTED OUT HERE:
You are such a great player. What went wrong?
That's a tough one Thinus, you know, one of my strengths that I think you might have seen at the start of my game is being able to relate to people quickly.
But what I know I struggle with sometimes is that it takes me longer to really connect with people on a deeper level. So I'm the type of person who had loads of acquaintances, but just one or two best friends.
I think part of that played a role in my game, where I established these surface-level relationships with almost every single player. And then, towards the end, I started to notice personality differences and differences in terms of how I wanted to play the game with a lot of those kinds of surface-level alliances. Then I ended up forming a deeper relationship with just one or two players.
I think one or two of the other players who I formerly connected with, picked up on that. I think that's kind of where my demise came from. You'll see Tyron, Kiran and Wardah - I ended up going towards the outs of that alliance. I was very aware of it. I'm a very strategic player; I'm very competitive. So, I think they picked up on the fact that I was a threat, and all of those factors combined, I think, were the reasons why I ended up being sent home.
I thought you'd made top 3 because of how you networked. Is there something towards the end you think you could have done differently?
Towards the end, my plan really hinged on Anela and Nicole, and their swing of the vote ended up being my demise. Anela was the player with whom I played the least throughout the entire game because he was the original Zamba – he was in Zamba the entire time – I was in Vuna the entire time, so our relationship only kicked in in merge.
I decided that I wanted it to be a "slow-burn" in terms of the way that we connected. I think if I had gone in on our relationship and really tried to fortify those bonds early on in the merge game, I think that that might have led him to rethink his idea of who he thought was a threat or who was going to be more loyal to him. So that's one relationship that I wish I could have just spent a little more time on to further myself in the game.
Did you expect that your name would be written down?
I thought it was possible, but you know, Kiran was great – Kiran was so good with the blindside, he tends to be able to lull people into a false sense of security in the same way that I can.
So, I knew there was a possibility, but I was also very aware of not wanting to let paranoia get the best of me and let fear run my decisions. I knew that it was a possibility, but from what I've heard from everybody, I told myself: Let's take a risk, let's gamble, let's use the Tribal Council Pass at the next tribal council when the numbers are going to be a bit more difficult for me.
I don't know if that's overconfidence, but maybe me playing my Tribal Council Pass would have been my saving grace, and I wouldn't have been talking to you this early.
Can you talk about the split decision to give Chappies your Tribal Council Pass after you got voted out, and also, what did you do when you went to Ponderosa?
To give you context with Chappies' relationship, Chappies ended up being my safe space in the game for whatever reason.
You see it when we're letting loose, shucking oysters and plotting and scheming. Our relationship was really at the forefront of my gameplay and my plan for going forward in the game.
As soon as I revealed that Tribal Council Pass to Chappies, that was almost me saying that this is an advantage that I'd like to use to help us both advance. Even in that split moment when I was voted out, Chappies was really shocked. I saw his reaction. He was quite upset, and I was immediately concerned about what his gameplay would look like.
Giving him my Tribal Council Pass, he already knew the rules of it; it just felt like it was the natural and the right thing to do for me to help my ally to get further in the game.
I was also aware that being part of the jury is a big responsibility.
Throughout my time on the game – after we hit the merge point – I was very aware that becoming a jury member was a possibility. I decided very early on to make sure that if I did become a jury member, I was constantly aware of people's interactions at Ponderosa and their views of the players in the game.
I really wanted to look at other people's interactions at Ponderosa – who is hanging out with who – what they would talk about, what their perspectives are of the players still left in the game, and all of that I thought would help me make my decision on the winner so much more informed. I really wanted to take my responsibility as a jury member super seriously, and that's really what my Ponderosa journey became – along with, of course, decompressing and connecting with the players who had already been voted out.
Survivor SA: Immunity Island airs Thursdays at 19:30 on M-Net (DStv 101)