The panel of judges will include the current Nokia Face of Africa title-holder Kaone Kario, who urged other young women to go for it without any fears.
“Last year was my time but this year could be your turn. If you don’t enter, you will never know how successful you could have been,” Kario urged hopefuls Martin Mabutho of M-Net, Storm Modelling executive Vicky Cursham as principal scouting judge along side former run-away model Andiswa Manxiwa will make-up the rest of the judging panel.
“Any young woman from Sub-Saharan Africa who meets the entry requirements is eligible to enter this year by simply attending a casting session in any of the 12 confirmed host cities,” Multichoice Botswana public relations officer Tshepo Maphanyane said. Maphanyane added that for the young women to qualify for this year’s competition, they should be between the ages of 17 and 24 (as of August 31, 2006) and standing atleast 1.74 m tall with a maximum hip measurement of 36 inches.
“Further, would-be entrants should not have a current contract with any modelling agency, either locally or internationally,” she further explained. The scouting judges during their 12-city visit will select the 2006 Nokia Face of Africa semi-finalists. Some of the semi-finalists will be announced after the scouting judges leave their country while others will have to wait until April to find out if they have qualified as semi-finalists. Once selected, the semi-finalists will travel to two different locations for rigorous ‘bootcamp’ selection sessions, which will select the top 10 finalists, who will proceed to the big competition to be held in Sun City, Johannesburg in August.
Maphanyane informed Showbiz that this year’s winner as with the last season would walk away with a modelling contract provided once more by the prestigious Storm Model Management. This is the sixth year the Face of Africa project is running. Having started in 1998, the project ran for four years before taking a short hiatus. Last year, M-Net and Nokia partnered and the project returned as the Nokia Face of Africa 2005.
Previous winners of the title include Oluchi Onweagba of Nigeria, Benvinda Mudenge of Namibia, Nombulelo Mazibuko of South Africa and Ramatoulaye Diallo of Senegal.
