Brenda Phiri Entertainment Reporter
The year 2014 has had its share of controversies but the Miss Zimbabwe debacle tops the list as the ultimate Joke of the Year. The crown changed hands not once but thrice such that even the drama surrounding our national football pales in comparison.

Controversies have rocked the national pageant in the past, but what was disappointing this time was the Miss Zimbabwe Trust, led by Marry Chiwenga’s failure to contain the situation.

Let it be known, it is one thing to fail to manage a crisis and it is another to worsen it and make the country a laughing stalk on the international arena.

There is no point of walking on egg shells on the issue as it is common knowledge to that our representative at the Miss World pageant, Tendai Hunda was half baked.

In fact, the above is an understatement considering the poor girl had barely a week to prepare before being thrust on the international platform.

Of course, one might argue that Hunda might have had some form of “training” in the six months that she was the first the pageant’s first princess but how far true is that?

The fact that Hunda was pictured wearing a wig on the Miss World website were the red flags that she was in desperate need of grooming lessons.

As far as The Herald is concerned, the only preparatory activities she participated in were donations at Mbare’s Nenyere Day care centre for orphans and vulnerable children and Waterfalls’ Mashambanzou Trust Care for people living with HIV and Aids.

The donations were carried out on the same day and on both occasions, the then Miss Zimbabwe Thabiso Phiri (the first queen on 2014) was at the centre. Unless there were others done in secret the numerous interviews with the Trust indicated that Phiri was dearest to them.

This is because in the short space of time that she was queen, she went to numerous make over sessions, gym training and travels around the region to familiarise with other beauty queens in preparation to the Miss World pageant.

She was groomed by various makeup artistes, former beauty queens and benefitted from interactions with renowned fashion designers.

The only time Hunda’s name came up later on was during an interview when Thabiso Phiri was dethroned on August 6 and Catherine Makaya was crowned queen in a dubious rerun pageant that had only four models.

It was surprising how the trust opted for such an embarrassing pageant instead of handing over the crown to the second best contestant.

“We (herself and second princess Letwin Chinomona) did not participate in this pageant because we are happy with what we have.

We celebrated our victory on July 14 and today is about Catherine,” Hunda had said in an interview on August 6.

The move to bypass Hunda who was the first princess then was an indication that the Miss Zimbabwe Trust did not feel she was the next best option after Thabiso.

Clearly, they chose to host what many called a joke of a pageant than risk choosing Hunda.

While the Trust cited a clause in the Miss World rules that states it is not compulsory to elevate a first princess to queen in such instances it had been done numerous times in Zimbabwe and around the world before.

Suzette Charles, was the first runner up in the 1984 Miss USA and when their first black queen Vanessa Williams resigned, she took over the crown. Many other examples can be cited and there was nothing special about Zimbabwe’s case in 2014.

Many other questionable decisions made by the trust included their disassociation with other beauty queens and one of them being Bongani Dlakama Miss Zimbabwe 2012.

While in boot camp, all the 2014 Miss Zimbabwe finalists did a lot of familiarisation with many things that had very little to do with modelling.

Interaction with other beauty queens like Dlakama who had had exposure on international platforms was going to have them share experiences.

Malaika Mushandu, Lisa Morgan and Vanessa Sibanda are also success stories of this generation and these models were at a better position to help in grooming this year’s contestants but alas! We doubt they even received invites to the Miss Zimbabwe pageant.

Another questionable decision by the Miss Zimbabwe Trust was the choice to dethrone Catherine Makaya and replace her at the eleventh hour.

From various interviews with different publications, The Herald included, it was clear their squabbles were escalating months before she was dethroned

Why did the trust not sit down with the model and resolve their differences instead of dethroning her a week before the Miss World pageant.

A record three queens in five months was a recipe for disaster.

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