Modeling guru to coordinate Miss Africa
Dumisani Ncube | Wednesday February 11, 2015 10:50
West, who boasts an impressive portfolio, has worked on eight Miss World and 14 Miss South Africa pageants, as well as several other pageants in different African countries.
Speaking during a press briefing hosted at Gaborone Sun Hotel, Miss Africa chief executive officer, Bruce Nkgakile told Showbiz that the beauty search would benefit from West’s vast experience in hosting international pageants.
“This is a man with a huge foothold who will also act as our advisor, and guide us through the build up of the event,” he said. Nkgakile added that West would work on the event management and production, as well as putting together a reality television show for the pageant.
West said he had partnered with the Miss Africa team at the organisers’ invitation.
He explained that he was mainly interested in working on the Miss Africa pageant because of the cultural and diversity aspects. “With this pageant will be able to show the 21st century Africa, that we are a growing modern continent,” he said.
West noted that working on this project would be a challenge since it was the first ever pageant of its caliber. He however promised to work hard to ensure that it became a resounding success. West will start by coordinating the Miss Africa Botswana pageant, which will be held on a date yet to be confirmed.
The Miss Africa team revealed that more than 30 countries have already shown interest in the finale event billed for December 2016. Prior to the event, a panel of judges will tour the continent scouting models to take part in the event.
Participating countries will also host their own pageants to select the final Miss Africa finalists. Miss Botswana 2009 Sumaiyah Marope expressed excitement over the country hosting the pageant. “I am more excited that we are mainly focusing on Africa. This will help us unearth new talent and show the rest of the world that we have beautiful women who can perform on the global platform,” she said.
Marope added that since Botswana had hosted the Africa Youth Games, she was confident that the country would host other large events.