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South Africa\u2019s most iconic reality competition, \u201cTropika Island of Treasure,\u201d is back for its 12th season and has roped in several big-name celebrity contestants.<\/span><\/p>\n Award-winning presenter and fan-favourite Zanele Potelwa returns to host the season<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>bringing her energy and charisma to guide the cast through the ultimate island showdown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joining her is a dynamic lineup of eight new celebrities ready to battle it out for glory, bragging rights, and the chance to claim the treasure.<\/span><\/p>\n Rapper Nadia Nakai, Olympic champion Caster Semenya, rugby star Francois Hougaard, actress Leandie du Randt, actor Sandile Mahlangu, actress and entrepreneur Amanda Du-Pont, Miss South Africa 2021 Lalela Mswane, and actor Wiseman Mncube.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cTropika Island of Treasure\u201d hosted<\/a> a fun launch introducing the new celebrity contestants, who made sure to dress up in their Tropika colours.<\/span><\/p>\n South African film and Television nominated presenter Potelwa got the celebs to open up about why they said \u201cyes\u201d to joining the fun but also challenging show.<\/span><\/p>\n Mswane explained that it was easy to join \u201cTropika Island of Treasure\u201d because growing up, it was a brand that was already around her home and her \u201cwillpower\u201d will be her strength on the show. \u201cIf you know me, I win everything, so I am up for the challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nadia Nakai explained that she couldnt miss the opportunity to dress up in a bikini. \u201cAny excuse to show off the booty,\u201d she jokingly shared. \u201cI also have a competitive spirit, so I feel like this is my comfort zone, so I said lets do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n South African TV viewers have not seen actress Du-Pont in any new productions for a couple of years now, and her return, even if brief, is certainly welcome. \u201cI think I’ve always been an underdog, even creating LeLive is something nobody expected and I love to challenge myself every once in a while.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTropika for me is a challenge, and it’s so unexpected, because you can\u2019t necessarily train for it. It\u2019s about so much more, it\u2019s mental, it’s God, its right moment, and it\u2019s nostalgic for me to be here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fellow actor Mahlangu is excited to show off more of who he is, off -screen and be super competitive. \u201cThe thing that’s going to allow me to win this show is when people start to see my personality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Actress du Randt shared that she hopes the Afrikaans community will support her and called it an honour to be a part of the show and was surprised by how competitive the other contestants are.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI love reality show and I lost to Jonathan Boyton-Lee in \u2018Strictly Come Dancing\u2019 in 2014, so I really just want to bring it. Ive learnt a lot from similar challenges. I just want to go out and have fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Semenya is used to winning and even the other contestants know this, but she said yes to being on the show because she wanted to do something that challenges her differently.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought, let me go play around with the kids. I am a disruptor; I am a challenge myself. I don’t back down to any challenge. So guys I\u2019m not going to make it easy for you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ahead of the big premiere of \u201cTropika Island of Treasure,\u201d viewers can look forward to a brand-new companion TV show. <\/span>In this special lead-up series, Potelwa will travel to seven smooth island destinations alongside former \u201cTropika Island of Treasure\u201d<\/a> celebrity contestants to find the perfect location for Season 12.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTropika Island Search\u201d kicks off on Monday, March 16 at 6.00pm on S3 with a repeat every Friday at 17:00 on SABC 1.<\/span><\/p>\n Tropika is on the hunt for eight smooth members of the public to join the season 12 celebrities on the island. Auditions open on March 5 and close on May 5, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n IOL<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source themercury.co.za \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africa\u2019s most iconic reality competition, \u201cTropika Island of Treasure,\u201d is back for its 12th season and has roped in several big-name celebrity contestants. Award-winning presenter and fan-favourite Zanele Potelwa returns to host the season,\u00a0bringing her energy and charisma to guide the cast through the ultimate island showdown.\u00a0 Joining her is a dynamic lineup of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2315831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[448689,448677,448676,448679,396610,402595,396235,448690,448682,448675,448684,448681,448683,448671,448674,440526,448686,448687,448688,448678,366882,30156,22205,448670,448672,448685,448680,448673],"class_list":["post-2315830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-afrikaans","tag-amanda-du-pont","tag-caster-semenya","tag-francois-hougaard","tag-god","tag-iol","tag-ive","tag-jonathan-boyton-lee","tag-lalela-mswane","tag-leandie-du-randt","tag-lelive","tag-mahlangu","tag-miss-south-africa","tag-mswane","tag-nadia-nakai","tag-olympic","tag-potelwa","tag-s3","tag-sabc-1","tag-sandile-mahlangu","tag-south-africa","tag-strictly-come-dancing","tag-television","tag-tropika","tag-tropika-island-of-treasure","tag-tropika-island-search","tag-wiseman-mncube","tag-zanele-potelwa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Celebs-ready-for-\u2018Tropika-Island-of-Treasure-battle.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2315830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2315832,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2315830\/revisions\/2315832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2315830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2315830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2315830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Get your news on the go. Download\u00a0the latest IOL App for\u00a0Android<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0IOS<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>now.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n