Miss SA Zozibini Tunzi on spending her R1m prize money, Sandton apartment

Newly-crowned Miss SA 2019 Zozibini Tunzi says she is not bothered by the debate on her beauty. If people were debating whether she was smart enough to represent South Africa, she would have had a problem, said Tunzi.

“With beauty it doesn’t bother me so much because beauty is subjective, it depends on who’s looking,” she told Thando Thabebe on 5FM on Monday.

The 25-year-old, currently doing her BTech in Public Relations at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), said though she did not know she would one day be Miss South Africa, all she ever wanted to do was to do something.

Though she labelled the Eastern Cape – her home province – as one of the forgotten places, Tunzi said growing up there was beautiful.

“It keeps you grounded,” she said.

She entered her first beauty pageant at the age of 7 after her mother signed her up for a church pageant to make friends. She grew attached to the world of pageants and decided to try it out as an adult. She suffered a double-blow in 2016 after being financially excluded from school and she then decided to enter Miss SA, where she only reached the semifinals.

“It was one of the worst times of my life,” she said.

Fortunately, two days after leaving the Miss SA pageant, she received a bursary and went back to school.

On the relevance of beauty pageants, Tunzi said the Miss SA organisation was one of the few that “put people on” and was all about inclusion and women empowerment. She realised her life had changed the night she was crowned Miss SA after being pulled away from the stage shortly afterwards for interviews. She went to bed at 3am the following morning and had to get up at 5am for more appearances and interviews.

Though she has been given the apartment in Sandton – as one of the prizes – she was yet to receive the R1 million prize money and the car.

The first thing she said she would do with her money was to pay off her student fees.

“It feels great, I mean, it’s money!”

Had she been granted the opportunity to crown Miss SA, Tunzi said she would have picked Sibabalwe Gcilitshana.

“She was so different coming in and the things she stood for. She was amazing and she’s one of the smartest people I know,” she said.

Also read: Metro FM apologises over Miss SA Zozibini Tunzi Twitter poll

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