Crowned Miss South Africa 2024 Mia le Roux. Picture by Yolanda van der Stoep.
Miss South Africa 2024, Mia Le Roux who dearly loves
animals informed this publication that she is buying herself a dog to alert her
when there is a knock at her door.
In an interview with the Diary Series of Deaf People, she
said the dog will undergo training to inform her when there is something
happening outside her apartment.
Born in the Free State on 28 June 1995, Le Roux was
diagnosed with profound hearing loss at the age of one and had cochlear implant
to help her perceive sound. She was raised in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape.
Le Roux who was crowned Miss South Africa 2024 over
the weekend
said she would spend some of her Miss South Africa prize money to buy a pet.
Le Roux said:
Although
many Deaf people in South Africa communicate in South African Sign Language
(SASL), some cannot. There are those who learn the language after the age of
20.
Le Roux said, “I cannot communicate
fluently in SASL as we [Le Roux and her parents] had to make a decision where
our resources and time would go to, and it was all invested in speech therapy.
At the age of five I moved to a small town, Oudtshoorn where I did not have
access to a SASL education. When I finished school, I had to fight for my
independence and work extremely hard. I do wish to be trained in SASL and I
know I will get that opportunity now.”
She
attended the Carel du Toit Centre from the age of one until she was five years
old. “Carel du Toit is where the deaf
learn to speak.”
She received a life changing cochlear implant at the age of two
and it took a further two years of speech therapy and continued repetition of
words before, at the age of four, she looked up to the sky and said her first
words: ‘Kykdaar, witwolke’ (“Look there, white clouds.”).
At
the time of her crowning, she was working as a marketing manager for a start-up
company. She was doing part studies in Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing at UNISA.
Since was crowned Miss SA 2024, on 10 August, Le Roux
said she cried this week on, Tuesday.
Le Roux said:
Miss SA 2024, Mia Le Roux. Picture by Yolanda van der Stoep.
The
beauty queen’s life has completely changed, and she has “so much hope for her
future and the future of others like me. We are being seen and heard.”
Taking
us through her thoughts after being crowned she said, “The words that went
through my mind is ‘Wow, I did it.’ All the hard work has paid off.”
Le Roux said her partner, Luke Ten Oever is not hard-of-hearing or Deaf. “He said that
he feels very proud and that I am the strongest person he knows, and he is so
excited to see what this year holds for me. We are planning on getting
married in the future but right now we are busy building our lives."
When she made it to the top 5 of Miss Deaf SA 2015, Le Roux had said she believed that her dream is deeply rooted within the
South African dream. She wants all citizens of South Africa
to live in a country where all shall be deemed equal, irrespective of
disability, race, gender, and beliefs.
Asked whether she believes the country is achieving that, she replied, “I don’t believe that we are there yet. We are still leaving people behind. And I hope to break barriers during my reign and promote integration and inclusivity."
Read our next article about the prizes that Le Roux walked away with.
