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Chronicle Reporter
CONTROVERSIAL Bulawayo transgender activist Ricky Nathanson allegedly disqualified a freelance model from a modelling competition to spite her for refusing to join his agency at the instigation of her family.
The family is said not to have been comfortable with Duduzile Tshuma, 20, joining Nathanson’s agency because of his sexual orientation.
Duduzile failed to make it into the Miss Professional casting auditions held last month after Nathanson allegedly labelled her a bad model like Cyclone Ree in apparent reference to former Miss Personality Zimbabwe Lungile Mathe.
Mathe, well known for her bad girl image and misdemeanours, was dethroned as Miss Personality Zimbabwe 2011 after she was alleged to have stolen a watch from a Zimbabwean based in America during a sex orgy at a Bulawayo lodge.
Nathanson was one of the judges and allegedly influenced other judges’ decision to disqualify Tshuma.
It is alleged that after failing to make it into the top 15, the confident model quizzed the judges on where she had erred during the casting, upon which the judges told her they did not have a problem with her but Nathanson had indicated to them that she was not good for the Miss Professional show.
However, after failing to get a satisfactory answer from Nathanson, Tshuma confidently concluded that Nathanson’s decision was to spite her for her refusal to join Richochet Modelling Agency.
Duduzile claims her failure to make it as a finalist was as a result of Nathanson’s attitude towards her.
“After failing to make it into the top 15, I approached the judges and asked where I had got it wrong and they all said I did not have a problem but one of the judges, Ricky, had complained of my bad history,” said Duduzile.
“I then approached him and he told me the same and likened me to Cyclone Ree which did not go down well with me.”
Dudu said she did not want bad publicity as it would affect her profession in the future. “Honestly, I did not want publicity on this issue but I am worried about my future, this industry is very small and once your image is tainted, it can be tainted for good. Ricky has failed to give me a satisfactory answer on why I am a bad model.
“I once took part in a fashion show organised by Richochet Modelling Agency and then he approached me to join his agency but my parents refused because they were not comfortable with his sexual orientation” she said.
However, Ricky denied all the allegations levelled against him.
“I never spoke to anyone on the day in question, we held auditions and there were more than 40 models of which we were looking for just 15 and she did not make it.
“I didn’t speak to that girl on the day of casting,” said Nathanson before dropping the phone.
The Miss Professional show is organised by Rotaract Club Belmont and the finals are slated for the 5th of next month at Bulawayo Theatre.
Online Reporter