Online Reporter
Zimpapers Arts and Entertainment Hub
Saturday, May 17, 2025, will remain etched in the memory of many, but perhaps painfully so for Nkayi-born beauty, Onesimo Nkomo. The 22-year-old model, mother, entrepreneur, and Business Management graduate walked into the Miss Universe Zimbabwe 2025 finals with poise, power, and promise. But as fate would have it, her dreams slipped through her fingers, not for lack of beauty or brains, but for a moment that reminded us all how human even the brightest stars can be.
Everything about Onesimo’s journey had seemed aligned. She glided across the Harare Hippodrome stage with confidence, her composure steady, her smile radiant. The audience saw a queen in waiting. The judges nodded in appreciation. The energy in the room whispered one possibility, this could be her night.
But then came the question and answer segment, often the crown clincher or killer.
Guest judge Connie Ferguson, the South African television icon, posed a vital question, what challenges do women face today and how can they be addressed? It was Onesimo’s moment to seal her fate. She began earnestly: “Today, women still face critical challenges in the world. Women face gender-based violence, maternal health issues, and unemployment. We need education, women that shine their lights, protect their hearts and stand say that I will do it.
“We need women that are leaders, that know that if my purpose is going to be greater than my fear, then nothing can disrisp*** their . . . that nothing can disrisp*** (inaudible)”.
It is at this moment that suddenly, fear, nerves, or maybe the weight of the moment, took over. She stumbled. She faltered. Her words knotted as she struggled to pronounce a word, likely disrupt, uttering instead, “disrispact” then “disrisp…”
The audience, recognising the weight of the moment, erupted in encouraging cheers as Onesimo asked judges to give the question another try. One of the hosts, Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa, gently guided her: “You may continue but cannot start again.”
Still determined, Onesimo clutched her composure and tried again, but it didn’t work. Her speech lost coherence, and the moment had already turned. She handed back the microphone, a painful smile forcing its way through a visibly broken exterior. She had fought so hard, but she knew, perhaps before the judges did, that the crown was slipping.
When the final results were announced and Gweru’s Lyshanda Moyas was crowned Miss Universe Zimbabwe 2025, Onesimo was named first princess. A title that should have brought pride instead brought a haunting ache. Her face said what her voice no longer could, disappointment, heartbreak, and the silent grief of falling inches short of a dream.
Throughout the crowning ceremony, she stood poised but solemn. Her smile was strained, her eyes heavy. For a woman who had likely imagined this moment many times before, it was a bitter pill to swallow, a reminder that sometimes, life is not just about what you bring to the stage, but what happens in the final seconds.
Yet in her stumble, Onesimo embodied something even greater than a crown, vulnerability, courage, and grace. In that moment, she became every person who has ever come so close only to be undone by the weight of the moment. And in that, she became unforgettable.
If dejected was a person that night, it wore a tiara too, not of gold and diamonds, but of pain and resilience.
And even though the crown eluded her, Onesimo Nkomo’s story will long outlive a coronation. For she reminded Zimbabwe, and every dreamer watching, that even when words fail, spirit doesn’t.
