Who will contest at Miss Zim?

Auxilia Katongomara Showbiz Reporter
THE Miss Zimbabwe beauty pageant for this year seems to be a closely-guarded affair with organisers playing their cards close to their hearts.The long-overdue pageant which was initially scheduled to take place in December last year has now been earmarked for May in Harare.

The pageant was last year cancelled at the last minute after several postponements and the organisers are this time trying to avoid confusion by not announcing any dates.

Back then, the country’s traditional and longest-running pageant brought together models from all parts of the country with the aim of crowning Miss Zimbabwe to represent the nation at the Miss World. Pageants or castings were held in the country’s 10 provinces in the search for Miss Zimbabwe contestants.

Contesting at the regionals was every model’s dream as they knew that was the only key to enter Miss Zimbabwe. Missing out on the regional pageants meant one would have to wait for the following year to try their luck. This brought healthy competition among models as they took the event seriously.

At least three models were selected to represent their respective provinces at the finale with Harare and Bulawayo usually sending in five models. After being selected at provincial level, models would seriously prepare for the finale, working on their weight and also undergoing grooming lessons.

The regional pageants were held last year and 33 models from the country’s 10 provinces were selected. The girls went for the Miss Zimbabwe boot camp in Harare and some of them were disqualified because organisers wanted tall,  about 1,82m and slender girls to contest.

Organisers have this year again said they were sticking to those requirements and would confirm the list of disqualified models. This means that all those who will be disqualified will need to be replaced, and how they will be replaced remains a mystery.

Miss Bulawayo, Melissa Chaka who is 1,69m tall, is one of the models keeping their fingers crossed, waiting to hear her fate. Chaka was disqualified together with 15 other models last year after failing to meet the stipulated height requirement. The models will only get confirmation of their disqualification when the organisers announce the finalists.

Former Miss Zimbabwe, Malaika Mushandu, was 1,82m tall when she was crowned and was the tallest model. She was also among the tallest girls at Miss World when she contested there showing just how rare it is to come across such models.

Despite the competition being scheduled for May, organisers have said they are not ready to reveal the names of the finalists, dates and venue for the pageant.

There is some confusion among the organisers because earlier on, they announced that they had a total of 33 finalists representing all the country’s provinces and that they would troop into boot camp in April.  They then changed the goal posts.

Chaka said:  “I am in the dark.  I don’t know anything as yet. I am still waiting to hear from the organisers. I once lost my mobile phone so maybe that’s why they failed to get in touch with me.”

However, one of the organisers of the event, Modester Muvhuni, confirmed that Chaka was part of the finalists who would be vying for the title.

“I can confirm that Miss Bulawayo is part of the finalists, but I am not disclosing any more names of the other finalists,” said Muvhuni.
Earlier, Muvhuni had indicated that they had two dates and two venues and were deliberating on the better of the two.

Confusion towards the hosting of the pageant began in 2011 after the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority pulled out and handed back the licence to the Miss Zimbabwe Trust following the dethronement of Miss Personality 2012, Lungile Mathe (Cyclone Ree) after she was allegedly involved in a sex orgy at a city hotel.

Since then, the beauty contest has been in shambles, lacking lustre to lure the most beautiful girls in the country. The Miss Zimbabwe Trust is now headed by former supermodel Mary Mubaiwa-Chiwenga who took over from Kiki Divaris. All eyes are on her and her team to see if they will put together the event this year.

Miss Zimbabwe 2012, Bongani Dhlakama, is still the reigning Miss Zimbabwe – something she seems to be enjoying as she is seen from time to time attending events with the Miss Zimbabwe sash, carrying out her duties as queen.