Entertainment Reporter
Preparations for this year’s edition of Miss Univer­sities are at an advanced stage with prominent musi­cian Aleck Macheso set to entertain revellers at the pageant.
The event is slated for October 6 at Ochi City. The pageant seeks to give platform to students to show that they can do more than just books, by partici­pating in different co-curricular activities.
Pageant organiser Prominence Makaza said this year’s edition would be bigger and better than the pre­vious one, adding that it will also, for the first time,  rope in models from universities in Bulawayo.
“We have since started the screening exercise. We have already identified five top models from the Uni­versity of Zimbabwe and three from Midlands State University.
“We are in the process of recruiting contestants from the National University of Science and Technology, (NUST),” said Makaza.
Buoyed by the success of the first edition which pro­duced 2011 Miss Tourism — Rumbidzai Mudzengerere  and Miss Universe Zimbabwe Lisa Morgan — Makaza said plans are underway to invite Roki’s Big Brother housemate Prezzo to grace the occasion.
The pageant was born out of the need to celebrate beauty with brains after the realisation that most mod­els were failing to answer general questions about their country and natural resources.
“There are occasions where models fail to answer basic questions, and in the process lost out. We are the first organisation to introduce the beauty with the brains pageant, which was later adopted by other agen­cies,” said Makaza.
Miss Universities is the brainchild of Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Commissioner Oliver Chibage and the winner will automatically qualify to contest in the Miss Zimbabwe competition.
Last year, 21-year old Ntokozo Sithole scooped the coveted Miss Universities title in a fiercely contested pageant.
The vivacious University of Zimbabwe student walked away with prize money of up to US$2 000, a laptop and a full year’s tuition bursary at her current college courtesy of FBC Bank plus a scholarship from the Zimbabwe Institute of Management for an Execu­tive Diploma.