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Dethroned Miss Zimbabwe 2014, Thabiso Phiri and her two princesses, (from left), Letwin Chinomona (2nd princess) and Tendai Hunda (1st princess)

Showbiz Reporter
The Miss Zimbabwe Trust, organisers of Miss World Zimbabwe yesterday announced that the beauty pageant would make a comeback this year after a two-year hiatus.

Hitting the ground running, the trust has given itself one month to scout for contestants as the pageant is set to take place on July 22 at the Borrowdale Brooke Golf Course in Harare.

“This year’s event is a tribute to the trust’s late patron, Kiki Divaris for her contribution to the growth of the modelling industry in post colonial Zimbabwe.

“The esteemed pageant will be held under the theme ‘Celebrating beauty through the eyes of our late icon, Kiki Divaris’,” said the trust’s spokesperson, Tendai Chirau.

He said contestants would be drawn from auditions which will be conducted from next Thursday at the trust’s offices in Harare.

Those who were shortlisted to take part in last year’s non-event have also been invited to be re-auditioned.

“In addition, new aspirants who are interested in contesting must be between the ages of 18-25 years, single and should never have been married before or given birth and have a minimum height of 170cm,” he said.

To add flavour to the event, the trust has entered into an agreement with organisers of Miss World Zimbabwe USA, Miss World Zimbabwe UK, Miss World Zimbabwe South Africa and Miss World Zimbabwe Canada pageants to have their three winners participate in the Miss World Zimbabwe pageant.

Each of them will send three representatives to join the local finalists at the Miss World Zimbabwe boot camp.

The models boot camp is scheduled to start on July 3.

However, those models who participated in previous editions and lost will not be accepted as the trust seeks to give other aspiring models a chance to shine.

“Former Miss World Zimbabwe finalists are not eligible for this competition,” said Chirau.

It remains to be seen if the trust will successfully host the pageant this year after failing to do so for the past two years citing that they were failing to get beautiful girls fit to contest and represent the country at the world contest.

This according to the trust, left them with no option but to cancel the event.