Sivuyile "Sivu" Xabanisa is a contestant from Survivor South Africa: Champions.
An underestimated member of the Utara tribe, Sivu was frustrated by being underutilized in challenges by his captain Mark Fish. However, he was able to find himself in a powerful position on his tribe, being a member of the majority while holding tight bonds with the minority alliance. At the merge, Sivu was outnumbered by the Rugrats Alliance, but hung on to the final five, where a well-executed Hidden Immunity Idol play not only saved his game, but gained the attention of the jury. At a highly competitive Final Tribal Council, the jury was torn between Sivu and Graham Jenneker for their different approaches to the game. Ultimately, Sivu finished as the second runner-up in a 5-3-2 plurality vote, with the vote split between himself and Buhle Madlala causing him to lose out on the title of Ultimate Survivor to Graham.
Profile
Retrieved from survivorsa.dstv.com
Age: 23
Hometown: Khayelitsha
Occupation: Astrophysics Student
Khayelitsha-born, Astrophysics post-graduate student Sivu is a self-proclaimed 'nerd'. He believes that knowledge is power and that you can do anything you set your mind to. He taught himself how to swim and is busy learning the rules of tennis.[1]
Survivor South Africa
Sivu first became notable for being finding the Hidden Immunity Idol at Utara's camp without a clue, just as Sonette Myburgh and Buhle Madlala won the clue in a surprise Reward Challenge. He hid the idol, but was unaware that Shane Hattingh saw him do this, and thus Shane stole Sivu's idol. The whereabouts of the idol would go on to sow distrust within Utara, but Sivu would last until the Tribe Switch largely unscathed. Sivu would align himself with Shane and Marian de Vos, but would employ an under-the-radar strategy and survive three straight Tribal Councils on post-swap Utara. While Sivu was targeted following the merge for being affiliated with Shane and Marian, he managed to survive. Following a series of blindsides, Sivu fell into the minority at the final five, only being aligned with Buhle. However, he had stolen Shane's idol and managed to fool everyone into thinking he didn't have it, only to play it and blindside Zavion Kotze. Despite being targeted for being a threat at the final 4, Graham Jenneker voted with Sivu, forcing a fire-making challenge between Sivu and David de Wet, with the latter being eliminated. Despite receiving high praise from much of the jury, especially from Marian, Sivu finished as the second runner-up in a 5-3-2 vote, losing to Graham and Buhle.
Voting History
| Episode | Sivu's Votes |
Voted Against Sivu |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Utara Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Utara Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Killarney | - |
| 5 | Zan | - |
| 6 | Utara Tribe Immune | |
| 7 | Gena | - |
| 8 | Sonette | Sonette |
| 9 | Stephen | - |
| 11 | Graham; Graham1 |
Altaaf; - |
| 12 | Solly | - |
| 13 | Moyra | Altaaf |
| Vel | - | |
| 14 | Zavion | Individual Immunity |
| 15 | Altaaf | |
| 16 | Zavion | Graham, Zavion |
| 17 | David | Buhle, David3 |
| Jury Votes for Sivu |
Shane, Zavion | |
| Second Runner-Up, Day 27 | ||
^1In Episode 11, The vote ended in a 3-3-1-0 tie between Graham and Marian, forcing a revote. Sivu did not change his vote on the revote.
^2 In Episode 16, Sivu used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 3 votes against him.
^3In Episode 17, The vote ended in a 2-2 tie between David and Sivu, forcing a fire-making tiebreaker. Sivu won the tiebreaker and remained in the game.
Post-Survivor
Trivia
- Sivu is the youngest member of the original Utara tribe and the youngest man to compete on Champions.
- Sivu is the first castaway in Survivor South Africa to make to the Final Tribal Council and finish in 3rd place. He was followed by Durão Mariano.
References
| Survivor South Africa: Champions Castaways | |||||||||||||||||||
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