Preparation for Miss Limpopo 2017 commences

The journey of young women contemplating to enter the competition for Miss Limpopo and Miss Teen Limpopo 2017 has started in all seriousness on Saturday, kicking off with a workshop arranged by Matlakala Bopape, who has held the rights to the pageant for the last few years.
“Today is a workshop for hopefuls,” Bopape informed on Saturday. The would-be entrants need to know that the pageant is not all about beauty, but inner beauty as well, she said. Having a heart for others, selflessness, spending time and energy on others’ needs and helping the underprivileged and being a role model for the youth is what the pageant is all about. These role models need to stand on their principles also at school, promoting the idea of no teenage pregnancies and good values to aim for a successful future.
Entries for the competition close on 8 October and interviews for the selection of successful candidates will start on 5 October. Miss Teen Limpopo entrants must be 15 years old but younger than 18, while Miss Limpopo candidates should be between 18 and 25 years old. The pageant will take place on 3 December at Meropa Casino and Entertainment World.
Bopape has been involved in pageants for more than 15 years and in the Miss Limpopo pageant for more than 25 years.
“What I enjoy is that it is in essence a youth development programme. We lay a foundation and platform from which they can reach out to the world, develop the self and help developing others. I see the development of these girls from the day they have entered up to the end, the skills they have acquired, and it is another person totally at the end of the programme. We teach them financial and social skills during various workshops held during weekends. It is a long journey at the end of which a girl’s outlook on life has changed drastically and she will be able to network not only amongst her peers, but in the community at large. Today is only the introduction and the girls are informed about what lies in store for them.”

Story and photo: NELIE ERASMUS
>>nelie.observer@gmail.com

Featured photo: The group of hopeful girls who attended the first in a series of preparatory workshops in the run-up to the Miss Limpopo pageant with Miss Limpopo 2016, Lelo Mukansi.