adminMelissa Mpofu Showbiz Editor
THE Miss Zimbabwe Trust, which is going through turbulent times and has crowned three models in one reign, seems to be missing the “real” Miss Zimbabwe 2014, if sentiments by their chairperson are anything to go by.Miss Zimbabwe Trust chairperson, Mary Chiwenga who has been abandoned by two national queens in less than a year, yesterday said the initial queen, Thabiso Phiri was her preferred candidate to send to Miss World.
“Thabiso would have been the perfect candidate to send to Miss World. It’s a pity she resigned,” said a disheartened Chiwenga.
Her sentiments come at a time when the Trust has been abandoned by two queens in less than seven months. The initial Miss Zimbabwe 2014 – Phiri who was crowned early this year resigned under unclear circumstances. Her replacement, Catherine Makaya disassociated herself from the Trust a few weeks into her reign, preferring to work alone, something which led to her dethronement. As a result, the Trust has had to hand over the national crown to Miss Zimbabwe 1st princess, Tendai Hunda who will be representing the country at the Miss World pageant.
Chiwenga yesterday said they were not amused by the way events were unfolding.
“There is nothing as painful as working hard to revamp Miss Zimbabwe and having people like Catherine who take your efforts for granted, as if it’s a joke. It’s really disappointing,” said Chiwenga.
She added that working with Makaya was difficult as she did not attend their meetings and preferred to communicate through her family.
“After noticing that Catherine was not interested in working with us, we communicated with her through a message that her behaviour was unacceptable.
“She told her mother who came to our offices complaining that we were shouting at her and should not do so,” said Chiwenga.
As a result of Makaya’s immaturity, the Trust has come up with a new system which will see them targeting mature contestants for next year’s pageant.
“In South Africa, the age restriction for contestants is between 27 and 29 years. For our 2015 auditions, we’re going to adopt this system so that we get mature people.
“If we deal with mature people, we’ll probably not have to go through the experience we had with Makaya,” Chiwenga said.
Scouting for Miss Zimbabwe 2015 is set to begin next month in all the country’s provinces.
However, Zimbabwe’s participation at the 64th edition of the Miss World pageant hangs in the balance as it will be determined by Hunda’s visa to England. As of yesterday, the Miss Zimbabwe Trust was still waiting for Hunda’s invitation letter from the Miss World organisers in order for them to start working on her visa application.
Chiwenga however said they were certain Hunda would travel and make it to London in time to join other models for the boot camp.
“It only takes 24 hours to process an express visa to the UK, so all hope is not lost. Once the invitation letter is here, we’ll start working on getting her visa,” said a hopeful Chiwenga.
Online Reporter