New Miss Earth to educate people about using earth’s resources responsibly

As SA welcomed spring and Arbour Month, former Miss Earth 2019 Lungo Katete yesterday officially passed on the crown to the new Miss Earth SA 2021/22, Nompumelelo Maduna.

Miss Earth is the third largest annual international beauty pageant in the world. It promotes environmental awareness, conservation and social responsibility.

The annual pageant was founded in 2001 by Ella Bella and Catherine Constantinides and has since crowned at least 10 “green queens”.

“The Miss Earth SA started 20 years ago, with the idea of creating a different spin to pageantry and creating something more like a leadership programme,” Bella said.

“We wanted to go into communities to transform them to make them more sustainable and self-sufficient.”

Bella said the idea stemmed from the need for trees and vegetable gardens and educating people about climate change, sustaining the earth and cleaning up rivers and communities.

Maduna said what caught her attention was the organisation’s love for sustaining the environment, leadership and women empowerment

“I saw that it was all about sustainability and that’s when I decided I wanted to be a part of that and be involved in the organisation and do my bit,” she said.

“I read a statement that they always put out that said: once a Miss Earth, always a Miss Earth. I said to myself that this meant even if my year was over, I would always be involved in that community and family.”

In a very green, spring-themed celebration, the overjoyed new Miss Earth planted a sweet karoo tree as a pledge to educating the world about using earth’s resources in a responsible manner.

According to the founders, the new Miss Earth SA would highlight climate issues and challenges from an African perspective and the impacts they have on the continent during her year of reign.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za