Survivor South Africa: Panama

Arriving in the Pearl Islands for a media briefing, 14 South Africans were divided into two tribes of 7 (Aguila in Blue and Rana in Red) and were marooned immediately in Panama.

• Marooning Challenge: With a map, and a tribe backpack for their belongings, the tribes must find a fuel container and pump in the nearby village. Each tribe has to bring their fuel to a boat that will take them to Black Pearl Island. The tribes must swim to shore and climb a steep embankment to retrieve their tribe flag. With their tribe flag in hand, the first tribe to claim the Black Pearl Island beach claims the island as their home for the season, and a chest full of supplies to help build their shelter. While the losing tribe have to be transported to Lost Island and must search for their hidden supply chest.

During the challenge Rana started raiding the local village's fire station for supplies while searching for their fuel, giving Aguila a lead that they couldn't recover from. The win allowed for Aguila to have a steady shelter and fire before night. Delayed because of water conditions, Rana only arrived at Lost Island in the middle of the night, having to search for their supply chest in the dark, and without a stable temporary shelter.

Sam and Mzi worked to lead Aguila through building the shelter, and using their supplies to catch fish, respectively. Mzi's efforts to provide food eventually won the tribe over, catching fish for Aguila after the Immunity challenge. Over at Rana, despite the long first night, the tribe generally worked well together in order set up their camp.

• Immunity Challenge: Starting on a raft by the shore, each tribe are attached to their raft's mast, and must traverse with their mast along a guided rope through the nearby mangrove swamp. The first tribe to return to their raft and hoist up their mast wins immunity.

Returning from the Immunity challenge, Jacinda and Lezel felt adamant that Danielle's demeanor around camp was detrimental to the tribe to the point where everyone told her she was going to be voted out. However, Don started feeling fatigued by the island life, separating himself socially during the day before tribal council, while Danielle worked around camp. At Tribal Council, the tribe spoke about how they were adapting to island life, but needed to build unity in the tribe. While discussing about the Immunity Challenge loss, Don felt that Rana should have had a man leading instead of Jacinda. In the end, Rana were split between tribe loyalty and tribe strength, with Jacinda, Gareth, and Zayn sparing Danielle to vote out an unwell Don.

Tribal Council was difficult for Rana, but Jacinda was excited that her game had finally began. The atmosphere over at Aguila was positive, where their food and shelter situation was more stable. Brigitte and Sam were identified as a duo as Aguila noticed how close the two were getting since the beginning.

• Reward Challenge: Each tribe elect a tribe member to compete in a game of reverse sumo. Harnessed to a rope, each tribe member have to try pull against the other to reach their tribe's stake. The first tribe to score 3 points wins a fishing net and flint for reward.

Aguila dominated in the reward challenge, however, the celebration was short-lived while they struggled to make fire in the rain. Tensions flared with Sam losing his temper at Mzi while they were building the fire. Jude and Vanessa stepped in to put de-escalate Sam, which left him stunned at the sudden shift against him.

Morale in Rana sunk after the third loss, despite giving themselves time to strategize before challenges, but they came to a consensus to elect Jacinda as their leader to organize themselves for future challenges. Their woes continued the next morning as the tribe woke up to sand flea infestation due to their shelter's location on their island.

• Immunity Challenge: With one tribe member attached to a cannon, each tribe must push their cannon across a obstacle course through the jungle. The first tribe to cross the finish line on the beach at the end of the course wins Immunity.

Deciding that Zayn should pull Rana's cannon from the front once they hit the beach stretch, they managed to overtake Aguila on the beach to win their first challenge and Immunity. Their search for food slightly improved as well when Ncumisa discovered fallen fruit for the tribe on Day 6.

Returning to camp, Sam felt that his temper had put a target on his back, so he tried to rally an alliance with Brigitte, Jude, and Nico to target Vanessa for challenge strength. However, Jude and Mzi saw through the duo's scheming. While Jude wanted to target Brigitte, Mzi had noticed how unified Rana was at the Immunity challenge. At Tribal Council, Mzi and Sam spoke about the rifts in Aguila, with Sam expressing how vulnerable he was after the fire-making incident. With calls for tribe unity from the majority, Aguila voted Sam to split him up from Brigitte, and to rebuild tribe morale.

The mood in Aguila rose as the tribe's decision to keep Mzi for his role as food provider over the combatant Sam saw tribe morale return to normal. While Rana were starving as they still struggled to make fire after a week in the game.

• Reward Challenge: Three tribe members from each tribe competed in an elimination foot race on the beach. Starting while lying down in the sand along a line, each round would have 1 less stake than there were castaways competing. The tribe member without a stake is eliminated from the challenge. The tribe with the last person standing wins, and gets to choose two of the three prizes for rewards: Mosquito Nets, a Utility Knife, and flint.

After losing two members in the early stages of the challenge, Sanele outpaced Gareth in the final round to win the Mosquito Net and Utility Knife for Aguila. However, the following day, Sanele and Mzi were dealing with injuries from the challenge, with the atmosphere around Aguila sinking as finding food became harder to do on their island.

Frustrated after yet another loss, Rana held a meeting to debrief about the challenge. Lezel questioned Jacinda on why she was chosen to sit out, despite having experience running on sand back in South Africa, over a stockier Zayn. More misfortune arose for the tribe when the high tide took over their camp, despite Ncumisa's prior warnings. Knowing that she was on the outs of Jacinda's developing majority, Ncumisa tried to use her own bonds with Jacinda's ally, Lezel, to connect better with Gareth to protect herself if Rana lost the Immunity challenge.

• Immunity Challenge: With one tribe member harnessed to a swing underneath a wooden tripod structure, the remainder of the tribe must pull and navigate them above a sand pit to retrieve 7 skulls to place on pedestals at the edge of their pit. The tribe to place all 7 skulls earns wins the round. Best of three rounds, the first tribe to win 2 rounds wins Immunity.

Returning from a narrow loss, Jude's health started to worry the Aguila tribe as their food shortage worsened, while Sanele's injured shoulder left him concerned about future challenges ahead. Unable to decide who to vote out, Jude approached the tribe and volunteered to be voted out to preserve the tribe's strength. This resignation left Aguila unsure about what would happen at Tribal Council if Jude were to quit instead of being voted out.

Attending Tribal Council, both Brigitte and Nico affirmed to Mark that Aguila felt reunited after Sam was voted out. However, Mzi implied to Mark that while the tribe was unified, there was someone who had volunteered to be voted out willingly. When Mark questioned the tribe about this development, Jude revealed to the host that she felt that her health was deteriorating quickly due to the food shortage on their island, and asked to be voted out to preserve Aguila's strength. With her admission to leave aired, Mark allowed Jude say her goodbyes and leave Tribal Council to return home. After Jude left, Mark informed Aguila that they still had to vote at Tribal Council despite her exit. Without having time to consult, Aguila blindsided Nico in a unanimous vote against him. After the vote was revealed though, Mark informed Aguila that since Jude had already left the game that evening, no-one else would leave tonight. Rather, at the next Tribal Council he attends, Nico would have a penalty vote against him as punishment for receiving the majority of tonight's vote. Stunned by the outcome of the vote, Nico returned to camp alongside the rest of the remaining Aguila.

Nico returned to camp furious that he was nearly voted out unanimously by the tribe, despite Aguila having no time to strategize after Jude's exit at Tribal Council. Rana's living situation continued to worsen as they were unable to make fire nine days into the game, with the women working hard to lift Gareth's morale to remain in the game.

• Reward Challenge: A Treasure Hunt in Tree Mail instructed two tribe members from each tribe to partake in a treasure hunt against the rising tide on their respective islands. If the two hunters find the treasure before it is washed away, they will win a unique reward for their tribe.

Mzi and Nico managed to earn a large bottle of rice for Aguila; while Gareth and Lezel secured fire in the form of flint for Rana's treasure hunt, lifting their spirits immensely with their first cooked meal in over a week.

• Immunity Challenge: As two tribe members were assigned to control a large water wheel, the three remaining tribe members must construct a nine-piece metal piping puzzle to carry water to a bucket at the end of the course. Filling their tribe's bucket would cause a floating stick to rise and tip a railing to send a ball into a wok. The first tribe to land their ball into their tribe's wok wins Immunity.

Aguila managed to take over Rana during the puzzle and won back Immunity to level the numbers again. However, returning to camp, Sanele's worsening shoulder became more real as his main ally, Mzi felt that he needed to reach out to a grudge-holding Nico, if Sanele couldn't start recovering for challenges.

Ncumisa saw the writing on the wall, as Danielle had managed to build trust with Jacinda much more easily than she had. However, Lezel herself was undecided whether to align with the Rana leader and Gareth, or stick with Ncumisa and Zayn, whom she trusted more. At Tribal Council, the entire tribe praised Jacinda's leadership, reflecting that the vote came down to the relationships formed since their last Tribal Council. In the end, Lezel decided to work alongside Jacinda's leadership, and helped vote Ncumisa out of the game.

Zayn was left blindsided by the vote, leaving Gareth concerned as he expressed that he'd flip on Rana if given the opportunity as he had no loyalties in the tribe. While Nico kept clashing with the rest of Aguila, after Brigitte had stolen his cigarettes to keep focus on him. Mzi had lost the tribe's fishing hook, but managed to fashion a makeshift hook from one of the women's accessories to maintain his role as food provider.

• Reward Challenge: One tribe member at a time are given one minute to solve a 3x3 wooden grid puzzle. With the goal of having each row and column in the puzzle adding up to 15, the first tribe to complete the puzzle wins a feast provided by Nando's.

After being told that they nearly had the answer in the first round, Rana were left frustrated and bickering among themselves after yet another challenge loss. With their camp life woes continuing as the sand flies and crabs under their shelter continued to attack them in their shelter. After staying up all night in pain due to his persistent shoulder injury, Day 12 saw Sanele be evacuated from the Aguila beach by the Medical team to assess his arm. An unconvinced Aguila were weary of his return to the tribe. Sanele's evacuation left Mzi to consider the possibility of aligning with Nico, despite his eccentric behavior clashing with the women on Aguila.

• Immunity Challenge: With three tribe members buried under the sand inside a chamber, a fourth tribe member must dig their way to the chamber door to enter. Once all four tribe members are inside, they must unlock a hatch above them leading the tribe to a wooden structure. The tribe must climb through the wooden structure before reaching the ground to run past a gravestone. The first tribe to free all four members from the underground chamber and then knock over their gravestone wins Immunity.

Lezel struggled for Rana, only managing to enter her tribe's chambers shortly before Aguila managed to escape and win the challenge. Leaving Rana devastated and frustrated that they couldn't even beat a demoralized Aguila. Returning to their beach, Lezel, despite feeling responsible for the loss, approached Gareth about finally voting out Danielle. As she wanted to keep her trio with Gareth and Jacinda intact. At tribal council, Mark questioned Rana about Jacinda's leadership given their challenge record, but the entire tribe backed Jacinda's adaptable role for the tribe.

In the vote, Lezel managed to keep her friend, Zayn, over Danielle. However, as Danielle had her torch extinguished, Mark summoned Sanele to Tribal Council. Reminding the tribe that Sanele had been medically evacuated that morning, Mark informed Rana that Sanele had been officially pulled from the game; creating a unique situation where he was out, yet his torch remained lit. Mark instructed Danielle to drop her buff, and claim Sanele's and his torch. Because of his evacuation, the person voted out at this Tribal Council would take his place in the game; leaving a stunned Rana watching a relieved Danielle leave Tribal Council to join an unsuspecting Aguila.

Danielle's switch at the previous Tribal Council surprised Aguila when she arrived at their camp on Day 13, where she explained that Sanele's evacuation led to her arrival. Her swap sparked life in Brigitte's game, as she and the tribe were getting alienated by Nico's personality around camp. Rana hoped that Danielle left with an understanding, hoping that her swap will benefit them all at the merge.

• Reward Challenge: Attached to their tribe by rope and harness, both tribes must traverse around a looped obstacle course while carrying weighted backpacks. Each tribe is given one timeout session in the challenge if they strike their tribe's respective gongs along the course. The first tribe to catch the other's last tribe member wins coffee and food seasonings for camp.

With Nico's motivation throughout the challenge, and a strategic timeout, Aguila caught up an exhausted Zayn to win reward, with Danielle feeling vindicated for the blindside that Gareth and Lezel did to her. Yet another loss exasperated Gareth's frustrations with Rana's lack of competitive spirit in challenges. Both Nico and Mzi started to notice how quickly Danielle was gravitating towards Brigitte and Vanessa, causing concerns of Aguila remaining intact for the merge.

• Immunity Challenge: One at a time, a tribe member must swim out to their tribe's buoy to retrieve a block to place on a pole on the shoreline. The first tribe to retrieve all 4 blocks and cross the finish line wins Immunity.

The win left Zayn relieved, as he was aware that he was outside of the trio leading Rana, while Nico was left concerned that Aguila were going to keep Danielle over him. Mzi approached Brigitte about keeping Nico over Danielle in fear of losing another Immunity challenge before the merge, but Brigitte and Danielle noted Nico's lack of trust in Aguila. Vanessa was left undecided as she wanted to work with the women while maintaining numbers, but worried that if Mzi was the only man left, the tribe will lose more challenges before merge.

At Tribal Council, Nico informed Mark that he felt the tribe never discussed strategy about Tribal Council to him. While Danielle acknowledged that she couldn't step into Sanele's shoes after his evacuation; she wanted to put her best foot forward for the Aguila tribe moving on. Despite receiving a penalty vote from the Tribal Council where Jude quit the game, Nico managed to survive Tribal Council where Brigitte and Vanessa chose original tribal loyalties over a new ally; finishing what Rana started by sending Danielle home.