Was it a mere change of guard at Miss tanzania?
Dar es Salaam. The coronation of this year’s beauty queen Miss Tanzania 2018 is a week away, one of the 20 beauties will walk away as winner of a contest that has for over two decades inspired hundreds of young women.
The tickets have already gone on sale and some modest promotions is on to set the mood for the pageant.
So far, it has been a very quiet affair from the preliminaries to the final with not so much going on until the boot camp which started some three weeks ago.
At stake is the crown plus some other presents that organisers will probably declare later in the week 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 and launch pad that unlocked careers from scholarships to dream jobs.
Many of our celebrities today in film industry 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.
The ghosts of 2014 and Sitti Mtemvu could still be lingering in the hallway, but hopes are indeed high especially after the pageantry changed hands from the old administration to a new one under former winner Basila Mwanukuzi.
To many observers, she is the ballast that the contest needed to keep the ship afloat after the turbulent times under Lundenga and co.
The new administration has moved in to change a few things as they target to take the contest to the right audience, in the process eliminating the grassroots contest that had become rampant during Lundenga’s reign.
When The Look Company took over the administration one of her major tasks was to repair the reputation of the pageant that was dented with 2014 coronation of Sitti Mtemvu who later abdicated her crown.
The ban that followed due to irregularities and in fights did not help matters at all leaving the contest in urgent need of makeover.
This was the lowest ebb that the contest had ever descended and it was one that it probably never healed from even after the embargo was lifted after several months.
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. Basila and co are well aware of this, and are ready to patch up the torn areas as a result the girls who are in the boot camp all stand a chance to win. This contest according to insiders is one that is likely to be decided by smallest details at the end of the day.
“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 a close source.
This, by all means will be a litmus taste, one that they have to pass with flying colours if at all the perception is to change given the mess that beleaguered past administration left behind for them to deal with.
They have every reason to be successful, therefore let the fairest of them all take home the crown!
