Little Zanika Morton, who is now four years old, won the pageant at a special fundraising day at the Carletonville SPCA on Saturday. Zanika’s life changed drastically when she tripped over her toy bag and fell with her head against the side of her parents’ bed on 25 March 2020. After visits to various specialists and two operations, it was determined that Zanika had permanently lost sight in her eye. A third operation was done to save her damaged eyeball. This had to be done as her face had started becoming misshapen around her shrinking eyeball. During this successful operation, doctors removed a small section of Zanika’s eye. They then removed a piece of fat from the little girl’s buttocks near her hip and planted it over her eye to restore its normal shape. Since then, Zanika has had to wear a prosthesis over her eyeball to make her injured eye look like her healthy one. According to her mother, Mrs Anika Morton, Zanika received another new prosthesis last month. She has to keep getting new ones because she is still growing. Zanika currently attends the pre-Gr. R class at a local nursery school and is already a finalist in a national pageant. The winner of this competition will be chosen later this year.
