Miss TZ, a contest now seeking redemption

Dar es Salaam. This weekend Tanzania will crown the fairest of them all; from the thousands who lined up the preliminaries only 30 beauties remain in contention for the coveted crown.

The setting for the occasion is on the shores of Lake Victoria in Mwanza taking it away from the maddening noise of the commercial capital for the first time since the contest was founded.

So far it has been a very quiet affair from the preliminaries to the final with not so much going on until when the boot camp which started some three weeks ago was announced.

At stake is the crown plus some other presents that organisers will probably declare later in the day and it remains interesting what it will be this time around.

Miss Tanzania in the past decade or so has always been about glamour, a contest that gave the eventual winner a life on the fast lane that many a girl could only afford to dream about. It came with a celebrity status.

Many of our celebrities today in film industry and other related areas were either winners or participants at the finals of this contest such as Wema Sepetu, Jokate Mwegelo, Feza Kessy, Hoyce Temu and many others.

Miss Tanzania season was a platform of opportunities that not only favoured the contestants but the entertainment industry in general as sponsored shoved for the space from grass root levels.

In the late 90s it was one of the hottest events on the entertainment calendar that only came next to the Simba – Yanga soccer duels in the city, for every socialite, this was a must attend event.

Two decades down the road these fortunes have dwindled and as some pundits put, it is no longer the talk of town.

Even with an aura of resolve and confidence from the organisers that the decision of taking the contest to Mwanza was in the best interest, this is quite contrary to what the story at the preliminaries that were held throughout the country told.

This to some observers was a well calculated move as the organisers aimed at redeeming themselves after some years of turmoil.

At one of the zones in Dar es Salaam’s suburbs during a practice session the mood wasn’t right and it was quite evident that hard times had hit the grassroots.

From the practice kits that the girls used to their refreshment and later on the funding of their transport home, told a story as the organisers had to depend on handouts from patrons.

Speaking to the Beat then one of the organisers said they had been forced to take handouts because unlike in the past there where they were sponsored from the beginning this time they had to fend for themselves.

This has according to some observers even affected the type of beauties who registered for the contest at different stages.

The odds are high but even when faced with such adversity organisers maintain that they have assembled some of the most beautiful girls that this country has ever seen including 18-year-old Diana Edward.

This leaves pundits wondering whether this value was entrenched even in the preliminaries that lacked proper funding to enable the scouting team do its job as required.

“We are ensuring that the ultimate winner of this year’s crown posses a good background, and has the necessary exposure that matches the pedigree of Miss Tanzania,” says Hashim Lundenga told the beat in an earlier interview.

As blames come from almost every corner with some saying Miss Tanzania is like a ship sailing without ballast, sources within the organising committee maintain that the contest hasn’t lost its luster.

How did it get here?

But how did this once glamorous contest descend into such oblivion?

When Sitti Mtemvu abdicated her throne 29 days after she had been crowned in 2014 there was every indication that all was not well.

Indeed as it turned out it was a very troubled place that was in urgent need for a makeover.

Echoes of 1967 rumbled in the background; a court cases pitting the franchise holders, a public that was still yawning for the truth over Sitti’s real age were among issues that Lundenga and Co had to contend with.

There was never a result of the pageantry that had been contested to this level to the extent that there were feelings of a vendetta.

To date the real age of Sitti remains a mystery that will probably take another contest to unravel.

Little known to the public, there was more dirt that was stifling the pageantry two decades after it returned as one of the most glamorous events on the entertainment calendar.

The National arts Council (Basata) had to act imposing a two-year ban, ordering the organisers to address the rot that was consuming up its moral fibre.

Role models?

There are some who think this was self inflicted and that organisers should have taken a different route after winners of the contest started a different trend of going astray especially after 2005.

In fact most of them ceased to be the role models to some of the youngsters as their titles demanded.

In fact, some social commentators argue that it is the quality of the beauties and what they did after becoming beauty queens after that time that led to dwindling fortunes; as a result they could no longer attract quality deals.

Wema Sepetu became one of the most scandalous; Miriam Gerald spent some time behind bars for assault and the final blow was Sitti Mtemvu’s age debate.

Even when the truth was bare, the committee sided with their chosen queen as the noise about her being over age grew louder and quite uncomfortable to the financiers.

As we anxiously wait for the results that the contest shall post tomorrow night in Mwanza, it is quite definite that these are testing times for the once glamorous institution whose luster is on a downward spiral.