Online Reporter
KUNDAI Benhura, who is basking in the glory of winning the Miss Africa crown, is not only a beauty queen but she is someone who really cares for our environment.
The 29-year-old was crowned Miss Africa in Nigeria last month.
She is the niece of one of the country’s finest sculptors, Dominic Benhura.
After three failed attempts, Kundai finally took the crown.
She beat other contestants from 21 African countries.
She is a passionate advocate for youth empowerment and Kundai is driven by a desire to instill confidence in young people through public speaking skills, inspired by her own experience in Toastmasters and the mentors who invested their time in helping her.
She told Zimpapers Entertainment Hub she was shocked when her name was announced as the winner.
She said privileged to represent African women from all walks of life. The theme for Miss Africa this year was ‘climate action.’
Kundai said there was a lot to accomplish and she was looking forward to partnering with organisations doing great things, especially the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife.
She said her connection to the Miss Africa beauty pageant started when the first Queen Neurite Mendes from Angola was crowned.
Kundai said she was touched when she saw her taking on a tree planting campaign because she has always been passionate about the environment.
She said the organisation appealed to her because, unlike other mainstream pageants, it celebrates all body types and skin tones.
She said her mission and mandate as a queen crowned under the SDG 13 theme ‘climate action’ is simple: remind Africans that natural disasters know no borders so that we are better off coming together with solutions to protect ourselves because the rest of the world won’t do it for us.
This means she will be doing a lot of reforestation campaigns, clean-ups, eco-education and, as someone in tech, hosting hackathons where young people can come up with innovative ways to fight climate change.
She said in 2025, it was not enough just to be beautiful because one needed to back that up with brains and a heart of service.
Kundai said with the right platform, a woman can be transformed in every area of her life from etiquette, confidence, speech, career and business acumen.
It’s refreshing to hear a beauty queen who cares for the environment. It’s something we should also care about as a country, continent and as the world.
For years, the world has neglected the environment and we have seen the consequences — climate change, severe droughts, you name it.
We all have to play a part to ensure that we restore our environment for the sake of the future generations.
Influential people like Kundai have a big role to play in such initiatives.
As she rightly says, beauty without brains, without influence, means nothing at all.
We are proud of her that she will be representing us in an area that matters — environmental care.
