Miss Zimbabwe dumps Chiwenga

Miss Zimbabwe 2014 Catherine Makaya has denounced the Miss Zimbabwe Trust led by Mrs Marry Chiwenga, saying the team has negative energy and is impossible to work with.

Makaya, who is expected to leave for the Miss World boot camp next Sunday, dumped Mrs Chiwenga and company, preferring to work with England-based Miss Zimbabwe Trust founding member Crispen Sachikonye instead.

Since taking over the Miss Zimbabwe crown in August this year as a replacement for Thabiso Phiri who resigned under unclear circumstances, Makaya has been running her own programme.

The 19-year-old beauty is said to have had a fallout with Mrs Chiwenga regarding how she was supposed to prepare for the Miss World contest, which takes place in London on December 14.

Speaking through her manager, Yvonne Chiwara, Makaya said she had sourced new sponsorship, a personal groomer, new designers, and is ready for the Miss World contest.

Said Chiwara: "There was a fallout between Marry and Catherine. There has been serious miscommunication. What I have seen since joining Catherine's team as a manager is that Marry and her team are not progressive.

"There was a time when we called Marry regarding the vehicle and tiara for Catherine and she told us that Catherine was rebelling. There was just too much bickering and we realised that such animosity was not good for the morale of the model so we found other ways of progressing without them."

Chiwara says Mrs Chiwenga told Pam Ndoro and Oscar Manduku, who are part of Catherine's management team, in no uncertain terms that the Trust would not assist Catherine as she is a rebel.

"Imagine it was in a public place and Marry said to Pam and Oscar, 'we will not assist Catherine, she is a rebel'.

There were even messages from Marry, very negative messages, I'm not sure if Catherine still has them because I asked her to delete them. Negativity is never any form of empowerment. That is how bad things had gotten, but we are doing very well and the corporate support we have received is very impressive.

"Catherine should be in camp by the 20th of this month and right now we are making sure that that happens without fail. I am patriotic and I am always encouraging and reminding Catherine to be who she truly is," said Chiwara.

On the other hand, the Miss Zimbabwe organisers had no kind words for Catherine, saying she had become bigger than the Trust.

    Mrs Chiwenga's personal assistant, Modestar Muvhuni, described the Miss Zimbabwe title holder as a "stubborn girl" who does not listen.

Muvhuni said the Miss Zimbabwe Trust has withheld all sponsorship they had sourced for Catherine, including a 5 000-pound shopping voucher, as the model is not co-operating with them.

"We had plans for her from the day she was crowned right up to the Miss World boot camp. We had also sourced sponsorship which we expected to come in handy for her preparations, but all that has been withdrawn," said Muvhuni.

Muvhuni said the Trust had washed its hands on matters relating to Miss World as Makaya has not pitched up for a single meeting and does not update them on the progress she is making.

"We have tried calling her but apparently she has a new assistant whom we do not even know about. They promised to come to meetings but they never did. As things stand we have no idea what she is up to and do not even know whether or not she will take part in the Miss World contest," said Muvhuni.

Muvhuni said according to the Miss World guidelines, Catherine is supposed to be driven in her official vehicle, wear her crown and sash, and be accompanied by a chaperone every time she attends events in her capacity as Miss Zimbabwe.

However, Catherine has been without her sash on all her public appearances but her manager downplayed that anomaly saying her designers prefer that their dresses be untainted by the sash.

"She has a sash which she will be wearing at the Miss World. Our designers prefer that their designs be seen for what they really are without the sash. That is why she has not been wearing it," argued Chiwara.

The adage all that glitters is not gold fits well with the situation the Miss Zimbabwe Trust finds itself in. Since the glitz affair to crown Miss Zimbabwe was held in July, amid criticisms of locking out ordinary Zimbabweans, the pageant organisers have known no peace.

First it was the public relations nightmare they had to deal with after Thabiso Phiri walked out on them without a satisfactory explanation.

Phiri, a law student at the University of Zimbabwe, quit barely a month into her reign and the real reasons for her departure have never been known. The model's real reason for quitting still remains a mystery.

Then there was the re-run scandal which saw the first and second princesses refusing to take part. They, too, never really gave satisfactory explanations as to why they refused and Mrs Chiwenga and her team never explained why they had to conduct a re-run when it is a norm to just pick the first princess as replacement.

As if that was not enough, Catherine was crowned queen at a ceremony most modelling enthusiasts believed had been stage-managed as the model was deemed to have been the weakest link after failing to answer certain questions correctly.

Now, that same model has literally spit in Mrs Chiwenga's face by refusing all help, preferring to sweat it out on her own.

What boggles the mind is: why would Catherine refuse thousands of dollars, a car and a driver, a personal groomer, international designers, in short, a life of luxury and an easy way out in favour of the bumpy path where she has to sweat for her every penny?

However, despite all this, Muvhuni says the Miss Zimbabwe Trust is already preparing for next year's event, which will be "even bigger".