MANZINI – Miss Cultural Heritage 2025/26 pageant winners have received their prizes from the pageant sponsors.
The prize presentation took place at the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) main offices in Manzini. The ENCAC Chief Executive Officer, Stanley Dlamini, opened the ceremony by congratulating the ladies and encouraged them to enjoy their reign. “I believe that we are all happy to be here today as we award our queen and regional queens. The crowning ceremony was indeed a wonderful event, even though we finished very late. To our winners, I can only tell you that you are now brands and you represent the nation’s culture. As we are heading to the Incwala ceremony, we will be hearing from our queens where the dance will take place till the very last occasion. You are now role models to young girls and they will look to you for more cultural knowledge,” he said.
After the CEO’s remarks, the sponsors who were present were now given the podium to present and handover the prizes to the young girls. Founder of Lassie’s crafts, Lwazi Mlambo was the first to handover. Lassies craft is a local company that specialises in traditional attire and handcrafted beadwork.
Mlambo said they are very excited to be a part of the beauty queen’s journey. “I am very excited to reveal that we not only dressed our beauty queens during the finale, but we will continue dressing them with traditional attire. We will give all five of them unique ‘Umhelwane’ every three months so that they change. Their attire will be unique in such a way that it will show that they are the 2025/26 Queens,” she said.
Imisebe publishing Director, Hlobsile Stromvig, one of their long-serving partners, also had exciting prizes for the winners this years. “As technology keeps on changing, we also need to get on with the times. We have smartphones for our winners and the queen’s phone is of best quality and a different brand from the other girls. As they are our nation’s culture brand, we found it important to also gift the girls with important siSwati books, including our ‘Umphandze,’ which comes with all names together with their meanings inside,” she said.
Representing Old Mutual Eswatini, Elvis Dlamini said that they will continue supporting the cultural pageant. “This year we have decided to do things a bit differently, we have sponsored the pageant with E40 000 that the queens will use for their social responsibility project to change and impact another individuals life,” he said. Expressing thanks on behalf of her fellow regional queens, the overall winner, Yoliswa Manana said they were very grateful for their prizes and promised that they shall be fruitful to the next person. “This will truly be an exciting reign for us, after all our sponsors’ contributions, we hope that we will carry our crowns with utmost respect and we assure you that our reign will impact and change a lot of young people’s lives in Eswatini,” she said.
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