Dancer Darren Rajbal from Durban became the first ever winner of the SABC2 reality competition
SA's Got Talent on Thursday night (12 November), winning R250,000.
"I feel so happy. I'm overwhelmed. South Africa, thank you", were his winning words, translated through a sign language interpreter.
Darren received the most votes from the South African public, beating beatboxer George Avakian (the runner-up), with eight-year-old singer Cleo Filander receiving the third most votes.
The other three acts in the finale were knocked out earlier - 12-year-old dancer Kalon Badenhorst; singers Willem and Louis van der Merwe from Stellenbosch; and guitar virtuoso Louwtjie Rothman.
Darren's win brought to an end the four-month talent search, for which more than 4,000 performers auditioned.
The three judges -
Randall Abrahams,
Shado Twala and
Ian von Memerty - were unanimous in their praise of Darren:
Randall: "He might not be able to hear us when we communicate, but we feel him when he communicates."
Shado: "He's so free and happy when he dances – it’s something to be shared with the rest of the country".
Ian: "When you see great talent it’s thrilling".
Ian was the only judge with enough balls to make a prediction about who the winner would be, predicting it would come down to George and Darren - who as it turned out were the final two.
Darren now joins such luminaries as Bianca Ryan and Paul Potts, the inaugural winners of the American and British versions of Got Talent respectively, as a first time national winner.