Meet Crowning Miss Mpumalanga’s new queen for 2023
The Mpumalanga Economic Regulator congratulated Bokamoso Mochika for taking the crown, and expressed its delight at her being its new ambassador.
KwaMhlanga’s beautiful and intelligent lass, Bokamoso Mochika (21), was crowned the undisputed 13th Crowning Miss Mpumalanga 2023 queen during a glitzy event on Saturday April 1.
She is the first beauty queen from Thembisile Hani Local Municipality since the inception of the pageant in 2011.
The first princess is Sinenhlanhla Skhosana from Secunda in the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality, and the second princess is Reitumetse Mokoena from Bushbuckridge.
Mochika received some prizes, such as a brand-new vehicle, a cash prize and a study bursary, including mentorship and business setup aid from the National Youth Development Agency.
She said, “I feel very honoured to be entrusted with such a prestigious crown and responsibility, and to be chosen among all these beautiful and intelligent young ladies with whom I was competing. I knew when I was preparing myself that it needs someone who is grounded, disciplined and prepared to listen. It also had to be someone who is willing to work hand in hand not only with the management of Mzimari or the Mpumalanga Economic Regulator [MER], but someone who will go out there as the MER ambassador and engage with the people in communities.
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“I promise the people of Mpumalanga that programmes pertaining to skills development will be available. Secondly, I promise that I will look into the manner in which career exhibitions are executed at schools, because those programmes focus on careers such as medicine, law and engineering.
“However, they do not tap into the arts, media industry and others, for instance. I promise high school youth who feel like I do, that they do not want to be a lawyer, but that society is forcing us into that direction, that I will be there with career experts to tap into that potential and teach them about careers that are not written on paper and not popular at career exhibitions.”
The queen is a third-year student studying towards her LLB degree at Unisa. She is also a director of a non-governmental organisation called Young Leader Network. “In this organisation, we run programmes that focus on presidents of the representative council of learners in local schools, to develop and enhance their leadership skills. Another programme will be launched soon, with which we will be touring around Mpumalanga to teach children how to handle and manage money.”
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MER’s acting CEO, Lucas Maseko, said, “Mzimari Productions’ partnership with us has enriched our purpose within the province and beyond, with the girls pioneering our messages across to communities. We regulate legal gambling and responsible liquor trading and consumption, entities which directly affect a girl in a family situation, hence the contestants are the rightful carriers of our messages. I am glad that Mzimari Productions has once again offered us another worthy queen to forge ahead with our mandate in society.”
