Two cut from Miss Botswana finalists

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Wednesday May 12, 2010 00:00

 

The two contestants, Gorata Tom and Kgomotso Ramongalo, were among the 16 contestants chosen at the Fashion Show held at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) on May 1.  Though there seems to be some confusion concerning the two contestants cut from the most prestigious pageant in the country, Pabalinga says that they had it coming.  Pabalinga told Showbiz that the pruning is a continuous process. He said that more would be dropped from the remaining 14 either for bad behaviour or failure to satisfy the requirements.  'The cutting does not stop at 16 because there are some requirements that they have to fulfil to compete at the pageant. At the end of it all we are looking for only one girl,' he said.  Pabalinga said that they provide the girls with experts who train them in various aspects like poses, gym experts, dance and beauty products and so on.  'The girls have to show that they are responding to all these things or they might be eliminated from the contest,' he said.  Pabalinga says that the two girls have no reason to feel prejudiced because the announcement that some girls were going to be eliminated was made in a full meeting with all the girls and the organisers present.

The two contestants were axed last Thursday at a practice session nearly a week after the fashion show.  The organiser further said that the continuous cutting process also works to the advantage of the girls because they do not have to go on spending on the pageant unnecessarily because the organisers failed to tell them that they would not make it.

'In the meeting we told the girls we could give them another week to try and fulfil some of the requirements, but they said that they would rather know them so that they could avoid costs of cutting the expensive dress, costume and all those expenses when they are not going to make it,' he said.  Pabalinga said the girls were overweight and that it would be wrong to let them go on to the pageant to embarrass themselves.

'For the fashion show all the girls have to do is parade there together in their clothes, but the pageant is different because a girl will be there alone and have to put on swimwear and if a girl is overweight and failing to lose weight we cannot let her go there and embarrass herself,' he said. The audience expect a queen, he said. He further trashed talk that there is favouritism within the Miss Botswana pageant.  One of the girls said that she was told that she was fat before leaving the pageant. She said that the organisers were complaining that the girls were too fat, and not beauty queen material.  Another girl said that cutting was not fair but she has made peace with it.  'That is all I can do, make peace with it,' she said.  The Miss Botswana pageant will be held on May 22 at the GICC.