Times Of Swaziland: MRS ESWATINI PAGEANT CANCELLED

MRS ESWATINI PAGEANT CANCELLED
================================================================================
 BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA on 16/05/2019 08:36:00


MBABANE – The first Mrs Eswatini pageant scheduled for this year will not see
the light of day.
This, after the inaugural event was confirmed to be cancelled by Mrs Eswatini
Coordinator Mncedisi Hussein.
The pageant was cancelled after being postponed twice after its launch mid-last
year. The event was supposed to be held in March this year.
One of the reasons given by Hussein for cancellation was lack of response from
potential participants. “In total, we had six qualifying contestants and the
event was not going to come into fruition with that number,” said Hussein.
A pageant must have a minimum of 12 finalists for it to happen.
A common factor which made the participating contestants boil down to six was
tattoos, which automatically disqualifies one from participating in a national
pageant.
“It is public knowledge that tattoos are a taboo with pageants so we could not
navigate through this rule, leading to the small numbers of keen
participants,” said Hussein
The co-ordinator also highlighted that the initiative of Mrs Eswatini in itself
had not been cancelled, but only this year’s event had.
The effort to attain a comment from Pageants Eswatini President Catriene
Potgieter proved to be futile as her cellphone rang unanswered by the time this
publication went for print. Pageants Eswatini is a pageant regulatory body which
was enacted by the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture.
They are the same body which grants and renews licences and rights for companies
and organisations who wish to host pageants.
Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture CEO Stanley Dlamini referred this
journalist to Potgieter when asked for comment.
launch
During the launch last year, it was revealed that Mrs Eswatini caters for those
who are 26 years old and/or above married women who still have a dream of being
beauty queens.
Pageants Eswatini committed itself to making dreams of the people who fitted the
stated criteria come true. The launch was held at the Eswatini National Council
of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) offices in Manzini.
During the launch, Potgieter  said the event was for inclusion in the pageantry
industry in the country.
“Pageants Eswatini is proud and happy to expand the beauty pageants in the
Kingdom of Eswatini. We want to align with other countries in the beauty
pageants sector by the year 2022.