She never liked pageants - Pabalinga

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Friday November 12, 2010 00:00

 

LeapFrog's spokesperson Fish Pabalinga yesterday told Mmegi that they  actually courted the young girl and had to  convince her she was made for this after turning them down several times.

'We had to send our people to try and convince her to enter because we saw something special in her; Emma had never shown interest in beauty pageants, she just liked modelling at fashion shows.

 'We were first struck by her qualities after she appeared in a cellular phone magazine, and decided we  should  have her in our pageant, but it was not easy,' Pabalinga said.

However Emma only finished First Princess in the Miss Botswana pageant that year as Sumaiyah Marope was crowned the queen. 'She didn't win, but the fact that she went on to finish as the vice queen, also showed that she had qualities, and when she won this year, we were not surprised,' Pabalinga said, adding that  when she contested for the crown in China, she was already motivated after what she saw last time.

'This time around, the motivation was there, she availed herself for the pageant, and we were naturally happy that a contestant with quality had entered the pageant, because we want to be seen to be unearthing the best gems Botswana has,' Pabalinga added.

However, Pabalinga says he is unhappy now that everyone seems to be claiming the glory for themselves following the beauty's exploits at the Miss World.

'We invested P3.5 million to run this pageant this year.

And the first prize (house) is worth P400,000, that is the biggest prize ever, it is only second to the P1 million be Mobile Premier League prize, otherwise no other sporting or art event has such an attractive prize like the pageant we are running; we revived this event when it was dead, and had no credibility, we gave it its new stature,' he said.