WHEN Zabelo Hlabisa’s name was called to announce that she was the winner of Miss Earth South Africa 2023, she didn’t even hear it.
She told Northglen News that it seemed so surreal that she had won that if the other contestants had not informed her that she had won, she probably would have just stood there for a few minutes more, oblivious to the fact.
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“I was actually zoned out when I heard my name, so I thought they are just calling me. Then the ladies next to me called me and told you ‘Zabelo, you are the winner !’
“I really didn’t believe it. I laughed it was so funny. I was actually laughing at myself for not realising they were announcing me as the winner,” said the uMhlanga resident.
Her journey into pageantry started after her mom forced her to get into it. Prior to that, Hlabisa was all about music and poetry.
“My mom forced me to enter a competition when I was 10 years old. After winning, I wanted to enter more,” she said.
“I’ve been doing modelling for the past 16 years, and I have my own modelling school. I also have a foundation that caters for youth development. I am a social entrepreneur, model coach, an opera singer and a content creator,” she said.
She also has quite a few titles under her belt, such as Miss DUT 2018, Miss SA Campus 2019, Miss Tourism Worldwide SA, Miss Tourism Worldwide 2019 (Second Princess), Top Model Africa winner, Miss Cosmos South Africa 2021, Miss Heritage SA 2022, Miss Heritage Global 2022 (Second Princess) and her latest, Miss Earth South Africa 2023.
“Pageants are not just about beauty and glam, but they teach you the way of life. You gain a lot of self-awareness, self-esteem and confidence, and you make new relationships. It’s a platform that helped me grow and be an agent of change,” she said.
Speaking about her latest win, Hlabisa said she’d heard about the pageant on social media.
“I had consistently followed the various pageants on social media since the day I won Miss DUT because I wanted to enter more competitions. I was doing my research, then I saw that Miss Earth is one of the four major pageants in the world. I wanted to enter, but I was busy with school,” she added.
Next up for Hlabisa is ‘more work’, she says.
“My main focus is on sustainable development. I want to embark on roadshows to introduce green infrastructure solutions to schools and low income communities. I am so glad we are working closely with the United Nations in South Africa on achieving these goals by the year 2030,” she said.
She thanked Miss Earth South Africa and the sponsors involved.
Miss Earth takes place in Vietnam in December.
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