The Sunday Mail
Last week, The Sunday Mail Leisure carried an article indicating the wheels had come off at Miss Zimbabwe Trust. A spokesperson for the Trust, Tendai Chirau, has responded saying there appears to be little appreciation and understanding in the media about Mrs Marry Chiwenga’s vision for Miss Zimbabwe, and where the organisers are coming from and where they are going. The following is Chirau in his own words
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Tendai Chirau
The Miss Zimbabwe Trust is happy with the progress that it has been made as far as promoting the national pageant is concerned.
When Mai Chiwenga was given the licence by the late Kiki Divaris, the pageant was actually at its lowest and things were really bad. We inherited a pageant that had its challenges and had lost the confidence of the corporate world.
You are always referring to the era of 1994 and Angeline Musasiwa but you should take note that from 1994 up to 2012, the handling of Miss Zimbabwe has been changing hands. Some of the people who have been in charge of the pageant include the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Karin Davison, to name but a few.
All these guys have faced different challenges during their time in charge of the pageant.
We came in 2012 with Mai Chiwenga having experience running pageants like Miss Harare and the fact that she has also modelled before.
She was entrusted with the pageant by Kiki Divaris and when we held our first event Kiki said she was confident that the Trust was in good hands. We were the first to do a dinner event, which saw many corporate bodies helping.
There was a bad name that was already there but we played our part in ensuring that we instil confidence in the corporate world. We made sure that we reached international standards in our events.
The Trust has not stopped and it is still moving in the same direction under the guidance of Mai Chiwenga. There is an issue of scandals, which we are now associated with but we want to make sure that there is sanity in the modelling sector and promote Zimbabwean values.
We want to mould a complete woman who is free of scandals and follows the dictates of our rules. The rules that we use are also similar to the ones applied at the Miss World pageant, so we will never hide dirt under the carpet.
It is unfair for the media to say that we brought the scandals while it is not our making but rather the contestants who brought those scandals. It is the Trust that would have been robbed and wronged so one cannot accuse the Trust but rather the girls who would have been caught on the wrong side.
We are surprised that some modelling agencies are accusing us saying that we do not work with them.
During our auditions, we engaged a number of modelling agencies because all modelling agencies have a role to play so as to make sure that we come up with a good queen.
(Wilbert) Rukato owns Size 4 Modelling Agency and about 16 girls from his agency came for auditions but only two met the requirements. It is not true that there are thousands of models out there.
He (Rukato) is only good at organising pageants for bars and we are not comfortable with people who do their modelling in bars. Going forward, we are determined to ensure that we produce a queen who is able to compete at the international arena and do the nation proud.
To achieve this we have to work together with all the stakeholders involved, from the media to the corporate world.
There is no reason for any Zimbabwean who loves his or her nation to blow another person’s candle so as to show that theirs is shining brighter.
We are not in competition with anyone. We are here to ensure that we bring the best that Zimbabwe can produce. Going forward we are saying that auditions are still on. At the moment we do not have the sufficient number of girls who meet our standards so we are taking our time.
As far as the national finals are concerned for 2016, we are saying we are continuing with our search but we are not going to hold the pageant this year. These auditions we are doing are in preparation for 2017.
We are not hosting the 2016 edition because we are not satisfied with the auditions that we have done so far and the girls that we have obtained. The girls that will make it in our auditions will compete next year and we are hoping that by next year we would have a sufficient number of girls.
When you are using corporates’ money there needs to be quality. Auditions are now every day so if there are girls who think they have what it takes they are free to come and audition.
We are not the only country that is postponing and to us it is a strategic retreat that makes sense. We are urging Zimbabweans to be patient with us and we are also encouraging beautiful girls to visit us.
We have managed to produce girls like Tendai Hunda who has represented the country on the international stage.
We are only four-years-old and we are doing our best for the pageant. We have held the best modelling events.
We are not worried about other pageants being held because they are promoting the industry but we remain the licence holders for Miss World Zimbabwe and it is only us who can send representatives to the Miss World pageant.
The team is there and it is here to stay and we are hoping that we get the right number of girls for us to hold the pageant next year so the search is on. We are doing our best to improve the modelling sector. If you look at our events even the fashion was top class because we engaged some of the best designers in the region.
