Dr. Luca Pontiggia, 34, of Johannesburg, South Africa was appointed Mister Supranational South Africa 2025 on May 6, 2025. He will represent South Africa in the ninth edition of Mister Supranational in Małopolska, Poland on June 28, 2025.

Including Pontiggia, more than 40 men will compete for the Mister Supranational 2025 title. Among his fellow candidates from Africa are Andrés Iyanga Merino, 23, of Equatorial Guinea and Ugochukwu Nwokolo, 34, of Nigeria.

The reigning Mister Supranational 2024 is Dr. Fezile Mkhize, 34. Representing South Africa, he competed for the title against 35 other candidates at the Strzelecki Park Amphitheater in Nowy Sącz, Małopolska on July 4, 2024.

Runner-up to Mkhize was Casey de Vries, then 28, of the Netherlands. The respective second, third and fourth runners-up were Brandon Espiritu, then 29, of the Philippines, Marcos de Freitas, then 24, of Venezuela and Sanonh Maniphonh, then 26, of Laos.

Dr. Luca Pontiggia

Pontiggia is a data scientist and a filmmaker. From 2009 to 2011, he attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he earned his bachelor’s degree in nuclear science and engineering.

In 2013, Pontiggia earned his honors degree in physics from the University of the Witwatersrand. He earned his master’s degree in theoretical and mathematical physics in 2015 and his PhD in theoretical and computational physics in 2018 from the same university.

In July 2018, Pontiggia joined Discovery Limited in Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa as a senior data scientist. In 2022, he launched a science entertainment and communications company called The Universe on Stage.

Mister South Africa 2024

On November 10, 2024, Pontiggia competed against nine other Mister South Africa 2024 candidates at Vodacom World Events in Johannesburg. He was runner-up to Cape Town’s Marcel Roux, then 26, who was sashed by Mister Universe South Africa 2024 Ntando Lurwengu and “Big Brother Mzansi” Season 4 star Sinaye Kotobe.

Dylan Majavie was the second runner-up while Marnus Botha and Mathew Mbambo finished in the Top 5. Hisense, S&S Aesthetics, Vitalemen, Vodacom World Events and Xiaomi were among the brand partners of the competition.