COVER: Was Miss Tanzania ban the best move?

Dar es Salaam.  When Sitti Mtemvu abdicated her throne 29 days after she had been crowned, there was every indication that all was not well at the Miss Tanzania establishment.

Indeed, as it turned out it was a very troubled place that even stellar performance by Happiness Waitimanywa at the Miss World couldn’t help their cause.

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.

And indeed the National arts Council (Basata) finally swung into action with a two-year ban; rather funny Christmas present. It wasn’t the ideal Boxing Day present for an industry that boasts of glamour as one of its credentials. 

What started from the grapevine was confirmed on Monday morning in a communiqué issued by the body saying they had decided to ban the contest in order to address the rot that was eating up its moral fibre.

Chief among the accusations was the bouncing cheque worth Sh 2 million that Miss Tanzania issued to Basata days before the finals in October. This above all the other reasons seemed to irk Basata more and they felt there was need clip the wings of the errant officials at Miss Tanzania.

“An organisation that issues a bouncing cheque is one that is bankrupt of all sorts of social values and that is why we chose to act,” says a source at Basata.

Besides according to Basata’s Godfey Mungereza,Lino had on many occasions violated the rules and regulations that govern such contests as issued by the council. “Lino has on various occasions violated these regulations and even when we wrote to remind them nothing changed,” says Mungereza.

He adds: For example out of the 71 agents countrywide only 14 were registered this year (2014) and even when they were well aware that it was a requirement for them to hand over the winner’s prize two weeks in advance they didn’t bother to do so.

Instead the council says the issues of prizes became a very contentious issue that sometimes required their intervention.

Lundenga’s reaction

But even as Basata’s reasons for giving the organisers a break sounds logical, Hasheem Lundenga thinks the ban was a harsh one.

“The council gave us a letter some weeks ago and we were on course of implementing some of the recommendations in this letter and now here we are with a two-year ban,” he says.

He says there is every indication that there is a hand that doesn’t want to see the pageantry succeed.

“It is unfortunate they are only seeing the negative part of it and failing to see what this contest has achieved in the past 20 years or so,” he says. Even with what seems to be a waning reputation of the Lundenga insists that Miss Tanzania has left a mark that not many contest in the country can boast of. He says though people have been quick to judge the success of beauty pageants on winning the coveted prize the reverse is actually true.

 “The success of the beauties isn’t in the winning of the world title alone. It’s where the beauties go afterwards,” he told The Beat in an earlier interview.

According to him most of the former beauty queens have become very successful because the institution gives them a platform to realise their dreams in their chosen areas.  

He cites, the 2001 Miss Tanzania Millen Magese, who has clinched a number of modeling deals including a lucrative modelling contract in the US.

There are some who think 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 to the youngsters as their titles demanded.

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 this year with Sitti Mtemvu.

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.

The losers

The number one casualties are definitely Lino and Co whose credibility has suffered remarkably in 2014 and it remains an interesting subject on what they will improve on their return after the two years.

Financial support will equally be very difficult to come by after the ban is lifted especially with the current in house fight that has left many wondering on who really owns the franchise.

Agents who are estimated to be around 71 countrywide will also find it difficult making ends meet.

The contest though an annual event became a predictable money spinner for most of these grass root organisers who admit that they will have to reinvent to survive. “What happened earlier on this year must have been an indicator after the sponsor denied to give a blanket sponsorship to the zones,” says one organiser who preferred anonymity.

For the hopefuls who thought 2015 would be their season to take the crown, they will have to wait a little longer  to get on the catwalk.

As fingers get pointed left right and centre, it is quite definite that these are testing times for the once glamorous institution whose luster had began to wane.