Following the saga of not having a Miss Botswana Pageant last year, all eyes will be on this year’s pageant organisers.
If Monty Robert’s response of Sweet Baint is anything to go by, Batswana should expect nothing but the best from this year’s pageant. Sweet Baint, alongside entertainment mogul, Tops Masole’s Pleasant Worthy, were recently contracted by the Botswana Council of Women to be the organisers of this year’s Miss Botswana pageant.
Having completed the last leg of the auditions in Gaborone last week, Robert explained that to call the Gaborone auditions a riot would be an ‘understatement’.
He stated that they had initially scheduled for the audition to last only a day but the turn out by the Miss Botswana hopefuls was astonishing and they decided to extend the auditions by one more day.
“We kicked off very slowly in Maun and the turnout was very low, but things picked up as we went around the country,” said Robert.
He added that the team was particularly impressed by the turnouts in Francistown, Selibe Phikwe, Kanye and Gaborone and managed to select the top 25 finalists who will be unveiled to the public as soon as they sort out their respective contractual obligations.
Though they picked the best among the rest during the preliminary audition stages, Robert explained that the girls still had a lot of raw talent which still needed to be polished up and groom them to the minimum perfection required at the Miss World Pageant, where the ultimate queen will share the stage with queens from other countries across the globe.
For this grooming, the finalists will undergo an intense and vigorous training program to get their bodies to meet the body specification standards for the Miss World Pageant. They will also embark on a 5-day boot camp in Kasane where they will be inducted on basic etiquette of a beauty queen, how to walk the ramp, smile and posture – all in preparation for the grand finale.
Robert stated that he sees a lot of potential in all the finalists and trusts that the training session will run smoothly.
2012 Miss Botswana elect, Tapiwa Preston, is expected to crown the 2013 queen at a grand finale scheduled to be held in Gaborone at the Gaborone International Convention Centre.
Among a wide variety of prizes lined up, the queen will walk away with a Peugeot RCZ.
Robert claims that they will host a formal prize jamboree where all participants, runner ups and the queen will be awarded their respective prizes.
Following the crowning, the queen will perform alongside queens from other countries and since Mpule Kwelagobe’s victory in Miss Universe in 1999 and Emma Warreus clinched the First Princess spot in Miss World 2011, Batswana ladies have not yet been able to clinch any other title but remain hopeful that 2013 will be their year.
