Miss Dzumeri builds girls’ tenacity
THE first Miss Dzumeri pageant was held at N'wa Marhanga village outside Giyani recently.
Ntsako Mabunda
LIMPOPO – THE first Miss Dzumeri pageant was held at N’wa Marhanga village outside Giyani recently. The pageant was held at Zava Community Hall during the day as the target market was young girls. Founder and organiser, Vutivi Mabunda, second Princess for Miss Limpopo 2014, gained confidence from years of entering pageants and wanted to give girls from her village the same opportunity.
The first community project Mabunda came up with was an event where, with the assistance of sponsors, feminine hygiene products were handed out to girls with community leaders, nurses and teachers motivating school children.
Inspired by the success of this first event, the idea of Miss Dzumeri was born.
Mabunda, a third year LLB student at Wits, was unable to organise the event herself due to her studies and with a budget of only R600, she needed all the help she could get to make her dream a reality.
But everything came together as several generous people also wanted to see girls from the province get a chance to make their dreams a reality.
She received sponsors for the venue, décor, posters and dresses. DJ Gami, a fellow N’wa Marhanga resident, provided the music, Nevy Nevie of CUT FM and Yo Boy of GTFM were the MC’s for the night, all offering their services free of charge.
After facing several discouraging challenges, Mabunda confessed that she was at the point of giving up on the whole pageant.
Some of these challenges included a low turn-out for the first auditions where only 10 girls showed up. Sponsors for prizes also pulled out citing short notice as their reason.
“I realised that when you set out to do something, obstacles will be there. They should not make you forget why you did it in the first place, you have to have the spirit to persevere,” Mabunda said.
“Seeing the girls transform from shy to confident from the first auditions right up until the day of the competition made all the effort worth it.”
Eighteen-year-old Kayla Serekela was crowned as queen, with Khanyisa Malungani as princess. “I also want to empower other young girls to believe in their dreams and to know anything is possible,” said Serekela.
