MBABANE – The Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) unveiled a board of five emaSwati who will revive all local pageantry.
The council’s Chief Executive Officer, Stanley Dlamini, announced the new association during the unveiling of the council’s National Arts and Culture Awards grand finale nominees.
The CEO stated that when they revealed the boards and associations of the different arts codes back in June, they missed one code because of the difficulties that were surrounding the code at that time. “Arts and culture is driven by numerous associations, specifically for different creative art codes. The council has identified individuals and personalities who are passionate and interested in revitalisation.We have a team of young women and men who have shown passion in trying to put the beauty pageant into the world map. The country has a dream, we spoke to representantatives from Tanzania, as Tanzania has won the right to host Miss World next year. So we thought how better to execute this than asking someone who has been on the world stage to represent the country,” she said. Former Miss Eswatini, Nompilo Mncina is the Chairman of the Eswatini National Beauty Pageants Association. Mncina is not alone as her Vice chairperson is John Pires, with Pinky Glover as the Business Development manager, Taribo Bhembe Sports Beauty and Pageants and Khethiwe Alexander who is their Communications and marketing specialist.
“As I introduced my fellow team members, I want to also stress out that the association has entrusted Mrs Pinky Glover with the responsibility of securing trustworthy sponsors for our Pageants as we now want to revive and bring back dignity to the pageant,” she said.
The chairperson then handed over to her vice chairperson, Pires. Pires confessed that when the CEO approached them, almost all of them had difficulty in accepting the responsibility based on the magnitude of the challenge that lies before us. They were a bit hesitant, looking at the current status of pageantry in the country, especially the Miss Eswatini controversy, but they ended up accepting as they are all passionate individuals about the future of the youth in the country. ‘‘Let’s say, this is not an easy task for the industry, which is why we are grateful to the CEO for taking his time to make sure that we are able to do this. When we look at pageantry, in particular Miss Eswatini, we don’t see a pageant that just bestows a crown upon a beautiful lady. We see an activity that is of serious magnitude to the social and economic climate of the Kingdom of Eswatini. And we believe that a lot of things have gone wrong, that have compromised that important activity for the Kingdom of Eswatini.
‘‘We believe that pageants can play a very important role in positioning the country on the global stage by making sure that we use our culture to promote Eswatini, use our tourism and our cultural heritage to promote Eswatini and to get young girls, men and women that can represent Eswatini. Even in terms of speaking the investment language of Eswatini being the investment destination.
Leave a comment