The Botswana Council of Women has unveiled Tapiwa Preston as the Miss Botswana Elect for 2012.
She will represent Botswana at the Miss World Pageant on August 18th 2012 in Mongolia in the People’s Republic of China.
The soft spoken yet confident Preston was previously crowned the 1st Princess at the Ms Botswana 2011 and stated that, “I am aware of the high expectations the Nation has of me, given the successful participation of my predecessors in pageants.”
She then cited Mpule Kwelagobe, who was crowned Miss Universe 1999, and Emma Wareus, who was crowned the first princess at Miss World 2010.
The President of the Botswana Council of Women, Francinah Ramatlhakwane, explained that they were sending an elected Ms Botswana to go and represent us at the Ms World 2012 contest.
“The reason for that is that we were instructed to (do so) by the Miss World Organisation late last year to have held our contest by April 2012,” she said. “Miss World had moved back the usual date of the contest to the middle of the year from the usual end of the year date.”
Ramatlhakwane further explained that the council had decided to choose a queen from the top five 2011 contestants and the decision was approved by the Miss World Organisation.
In preparing for sending Ms Botswana 2012 to the Miss World Event, the budget, according to Ramatlhakwane, amounted to P260 000. She said they have so far been able to raise P117 000 through a partnership with Debswana and Diamond Trading Company.
Ramatlhakwane made a plea to both the private sector and the general public to aide in raising funds, which will enable Miss Botswana “to go and successfully compete at Miss World 2012”.
Preston vowed that during her reign as Queen, she will embark on a lifelong project under the Miss World “Beauty with a Purpose” sub section to “raise awareness on children’s disabilities…to assist in equipping them with resources and technology that will allow them equal opportunity to learn”.
Preston wants to rid Batswana of the misconception that children who do not perform well at school are lazy whilst they are faced with a problem of processing information differently.
“Beauty with a purpose surpasses physical beauty,” Preston stated. “Physical beauty is not only subjective but also transient.”
She is set to leave Botswana for Mongolia in mid July 2012 and will take to the stage on August 18th 2012.
