Miss SD contest will be probed

MBABANE- The Swaziland National Council of Arts and Culture will set up an enquiry into the operations of the Miss Swaziland contest.

This was revealed by the Council’s Chairman, Prince Lonkhokhela. The chairman said they met with the Miss Swaziland Committee yesterday, as they wanted to sort out some issues with them.
He said he was called by the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Hlobsile Ndlovu who wanted to know what was going on with Miss Swaziland, after stories emerged that the country’s beauty ambassador, Nompilo Mncina went to the Miss World contest with no pocket money.

“The committee asked only for air ticket money from us and did not tell us anything about an allowance. We only knew that the beauty queen had no allowance two hours before she boarded her flight,” he said.

He said they also warned them about dragging the king’s name into the mud as the money the council would have given them belonged to the king. He said the committee was very wrong to talk about the king in the media. He said the committee apologised and promised not to repeat their mistakes. The prince said they would set up the enquiry to look into the problems faced by the pageant every year  and challenges faced by the winners.

“We will talk to the ex- queens as well as the committee to find out where the problem really lies.
“How do we expect the girl (Nomphilo) to win when she is faced with all these problems and has lost her confidence?” he asked, not necessarily expecting a response.

He said he had talked to Mncina a couple of times to try and bring back her confidence and she had assured him that she was fine and would bring the crown back home. He said the enquiry would be submitted to the minister once it was finalised.

The enquiry comes up a few months after senators called for a probe into the operations of the contest. When sought for comment, Miss Swaziland License holder, Vinah Mamba-Gray said at the moment, she cannot comment and hung up.