Mr Ugly Bulawayo: Not enough ugly men

Bruce Ndlovu
The organisers of the Mr Ugly contest are struggling to find the right candidates for the pageant, with only six suitable candidates having been found for the cityaï¿½ï¿½s edition of the cityaï¿½ï¿½s provincial finals.

The Bulawayo Provincial finals for the Mr Ugly contest were initially penciled in for 9 July but with the organisers struggling to come up with the suitable number of candidates for the contest it has been postponed to the first weekend of August as the new date.

A date for the finals has not yet been set.

Cecil Hotel the home of Private Lounge, who invited organisers of the pageant and former winner William Musvinu to the Hlanganani/Sanganai Expo last month, will play host to the event.

Last year Bulawayo was sidelined as the contestaï¿½ï¿½s organisers mainly concentrated on the capital and its surrounding areas, after organisers found few takers in the City of Kings.

However, after the event became a sensation that went viral on social media and managed to make headlines in international media, it is now set to come to the countryaï¿½ï¿½s second largest city.

In an interview, the organiser of the pageant Apama Machowa said that the pageant had been shelved as they had only managed to find six suitable candidates to take part in the Bulawayo edition of the competition.

aï¿½?The response to the contest in Bulawayo has been positive but we have only managed to lure six contestants so far.

We would love to build up momentum and get more attention to the show and thataï¿½ï¿½s why we are trying to make early advertisements for the show going so we can get more people involved,aï¿½? he said.

Machowa encouraged prospective participants to come forward as they had increased the incentives for this yearaï¿½ï¿½s contest.

aï¿½?I encourage everyone interested in Bulawayo to come forward because this yearaï¿½ï¿½s winner will walk away with $5 000 and a ticket to the continental contest in South Africa later this year. I believe that is incentive enough,aï¿½? he said.

The contest has already held its preliminary rounds for Harare province with two time champion, William Masvinu, shrugging off competition from five other contestants to win a place in the Mr Ugly Harare provincial finals.