Miss Deaf Africa organisers threaten to withdraw

MBABANE – Nelisiwe Lushaba, the new Miss Deaf Beauty Pageant Director has only this week to show her capability of hosting Miss Deaf Africa.

The organisers of the Miss Deaf Africa who are based in Cape Town, South Africa have given the country only this week to indicate if the pageant would be hosted here or not.

Miss Deaf Africa’s main organiser Maria Sivertsen said if Swaziland fails to indicate by Friday, they will be forced to withdraw the pageant from being hosted in the country.
In a telephone interview, Sivert-sen said she was very disappointed with the way the whole issue of Miss Deaf Africa was being handled because their wish was to have the pageant held in the country.

Advanced

“We had already informed all our agencies around Africa that this year’s pageant would be held in Swaziland. We were already at an advanced stage with the preparations.
“However, we had to wait because of the problems in the Swazi pageant,” she said.
Sivertsen said one of the challenges they came across was that since their local contact person, in this case being Nokuthula Mbatha, resigned, they had been left with no one to communicate with.

Update

 “While Nokuthula was the director, she used to update us and everything was on the right track. It is only now that there has been a problem. We could not continue with the preparations especially because we are still not sure if we have the venue or not,” she said.
She said a lot of money was involved in making the event a success and therefore it was impossible for them to continue with the planning.
“We have only this week to decide. If we do not get any communication from Swaziland, we will be forced to withdraw.

Choice

This will mean we will have to look for an alternative venue. It is a pity that we did not anticipate such a scenario but we have no choice but to withdraw if things come to a push,” she said.
Sivertsen said when they first visited the country she was convinced that it was the best place to host the pageant.
“The girls would be more disappointed especially because some of them had never had the opportunity of being in Swazi-land.
“We had planned one of the best pageants but because of the challenges we are faced with, we might be forced to withdraw,” she said.

Hoping

Sivertsen said she had already communicated with the Swazi-land National Council of Arts and Culture (SNCAC) informing them about their stance and were hoping to get a response before Friday. Stanley Dlamini, SNCAC Chief Executive Officer, said he had not yet received any communication from the organisers of the pageant.

“I am expecting an answer from them as I sent an email informing them that we would be happy to have a discussion with them about the pageant. I am still waiting for their response and that is when I will know the next step,” he said.
Lushaba asked not to comment until the new Miss Deaf Committee is officially announced.

Mr Deaf on the cards

MBABANE – Swaziland will for the first time host a pageant for deaf young men.

The pageant is expected to be organised by Nelisiwe Lushaba who is the now director for Miss Deaf Swaziland.

This means Lushaba, together with her committee, would now be expected to organise both the Miss Deaf and Mr Deaf Beauty Pageants.
Information gathered is that Lushaba was informed that she would be expected to be in charge of both pageants something she had no problem with.

Approached

The Swaziland National Association of the Deaf (SNAD) approached the Swaziland Beauty Pageants Association (SBPA) executive committee where they asked that such an event be organised.
Tony Dlamini, President of the SBPA confirmed that there was a plan to host a new pageant.

“The committee that would be announced before the end of the week would be responsible for organising the event.
Once they are ready, they will inform us on how the event would be coordinated. They would have the final say and we will act on their recommendations,” he said.

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