By Own Correspondent
The parents of outgoing Miss Teen SA, 19-year-old Charnelle Dennis, threatened a fortnight ago to sue a radio deejay for daring to say on air that their daughter was pregnant. They could not have been more wrong.
A few days later Charnelle gave birth to a baby on the bathroom floor of her parents' home in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.
She had in fact been nine months pregnant when the remark was made but had managed to conceal it from her parents - and from the millions of viewers who watched her hand over her crown to the new Miss Teen SA on prime time television just three weeks ago.
Her father, Neville Dennis, a minister in the Christian Assemblies church, and her mother, Maureen, threatened to sue Metro deejay Justice 'Just Ice' Ramahlola after he announced on national radio on July 17 that the beauty queen was pregnant.
At the crowning of her successor telecast live on July 15, Charnelle said: "The past year has changed my life forever."
No one among the millions watching knew just how true this was - not even, it is believed, her parents and three sisters aged between 21 and five.
For Charnelle had a secret: she had been pregnant for nine of the 10 months of her reign.
Amazingly, she had managed to hide her condition by wearing clothes that obscured her swelling figure.
Charnelle must have been dreading the Saturday night of the Miss Teen 2000 pageant when she would face the country at the end of her year's reign.
But she managed to continue her deception.
She wore a white ballgown gathered at the waist with the upper half of her body swathed in a tulle shawl.
In the few minutes she was on stage to hand over her crown, she used it successfully to veil her abdomen, but as she hugged the winners, the camera gave an occasional peek of what could be euphemistically described as a thickening waist.
Even the organisers were not suspicious. Miss Teen SA organiser Jannie Pretorius said this week he thought Charnelle was looking chubbier but he did not link this to pregnancy.
Soon after the Miss Teen SA pageant, the storm broke when deejay Ramahlola, repeating gossip from the show, said Charnelle was pregnant.
The comment was immediately slammed as a defamatory slur and had everyone shaking their heads in disbelief.
Although Charnelle did not react personally in public, her parents denied the rumour and threatened legal action, forcing an apology from Radio Metro.
Charnelle's deception grew when Miss Teen SA organisers asked for a medical certificate. They were sent one, from a Uitenhage doctor dated July 19, stating that a pregnancy test was negative.
But the doctor told a journalist this week that he was not sure if the woman he tested was Charnelle. He said the woman, not a regular patient, made an appointment and gave her name as Charnelle Dennis. No ID was requested.
The girl told the doctor she had come to him and not her regular GP because she was required to produce six pregnancy test certificates.
This was not true, said Pretorius. He had asked for only one. When he received it, as far as the organisers were concerned that was the end of the matter.
Then this week, when the controversy seemed to have died down, Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth were suddenly abuzz with rumours that Charnelle had given birth.
Newspapers received several tip-offs and the Eastern Province Herald, quoting reliable sources, broke the news on Thursday that Charnelle had given birth to a 3,7kg baby boy, apparently secretly at home last Saturday, and had been rushed to a clinic in Uitenhage afterwards.
It was reported that Charnelle cut the umbilical cord herself.
One report said her mother was later admitted to the same clinic for treatment after having a breakdown. Since the news broke, Charnelle and her family have gone into hiding.
Charnelle, who attended Uitenhage's prestigious Riebeek primary and high schools, comes from a devout and respected Uitenhage family. At the time of the crowning, she did not have a boyfriend.
Charnelle's crowning as Miss Teen SA at the beginning of October changed her life dramatically. She won prizes worth R300 000, including R25 000 in cash and a trip to Malaysia.
Doors to the glamorous world of modelling were thrown open and she gave up her law studies at the University of Port Elizabeth. She had dreamt of following in the footsteps of her uncle, well-known Cape Town lawyer and acting judge Denzil Potgieter, but now she had a different dream - to be a top model.
Pursuing that career meant leaving Port Elizabeth and moving to the fashion centre of South Africa, Cape Town.
She must have been in a harrowing dilemma when she found she was pregnant: go public and face embarrassment and disgrace as a national beauty queen or disguise her condition and live a lie for the rest of her reign.
She chose the latter - and almost succeeded.
Wherever Charnelle is hiding, she is not without sympathy. Public reaction changed quickly from amazement to strong support.
Pretorius said he was "saddened" by what had happened.
"Charnelle was an extremely good Miss Teen SA and we are behind her 100 percent.
"I think we can take what happened as an example and learn from it. We have to look at the reality of teenage pregnancy and that it is a problem, more than being critical about it."
Veteran Miss SA promoter Doreen Morris made an impassioned plea to Charnelle to face the public and pledged to stand by her.
"She is such a wonderful child. I really love her as if she were my own. I would love to make contact with Charnelle, just to give her support. She must come forward and face the world. She must not let this ruin her life."
This weekend Charnelle is also being comforted by Potgieter, the uncle and mentor she so admires. Potgieter's family in Cape Town said on Saturday he had "gone to Port Elizabeth to stay with family".
Gynaecologist Johan Moller said he knew of many young girls who had managed to hide their pregnancies from their families right to full-term.
"Tall girls in particular seem to be able to disguise it easier," he said.