Non-regulated agencies face limitations
... regulations in pageants help tackle human trafficking
MBABANE – Non-regulated local pageant agencies face limitations when it comes to working with foreign agencies.
This was noted by the entertainment desk when following up on the opportunity given by the Miss Culture Global pageant to Top Models Eswatini (TME) to provide a model who will contest in this year’s Miss Culture Global pageant.
The Director of TME, Mbalenhle Manana, was granted an acceptance letter by Miss Culture Global to participate in the upcoming pageant competition slated to take place in South Africa this April.
The Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) ended up taking the opportunity from TME.
This comes after Miss Culture Global founder and CEO Lorraine Kljajic ended up taking the opportunity to ENCAC because TME was not registered with ENCAC. It is worth noting that ENCAC governs all arts associations in the country.
On January 24, Kljajic wrote a letter to ENCAC CEO Stanley Dlamini, notifying him that they had partnered with TME to participate in the Miss Culture Global pageant competition.
“We are excited to share that we have partnered with a local agency, Top Models Eswatini, for the upcoming Miss Culture Global Eswatini event, which is scheduled to take place later this year in April.
“During this event, we will select a representative to proudly showcase the cultural diversity and heritage of Eswatini at the Miss Culture Global pageant,” read part of the letter.
TME Director Manana gave the Miss Culture Global founder contacts of the ENCAC CEO to make him aware of the opportunity.
Upon calling the ENCAC CEO, the Miss Culture Global founder then decided to work with ENCAC since TME is not registered with ENCAC. Although Manana got the opportunity for TME, she will not be able to continue to participate since she is not registered with ENCAC, which has now pledged the current Miss Cultural Heritage, Melinda Mavuso, to participate in the Miss Culture Global competition.
Suitable
The TME director said that at least she should have been given a chance to work with ENCAC in finding a suitable candidate for the competition since she is the one who got the opportunity first.
She said that she saw the post on one of her friend’s social media pages who is based in SA announcing that Miss Culture Global was going to be hosted this year, and she asked for the opportunity to join as TME.
“A friend of mine who works with models and pageants in SA shared the information on her social media page, and that is when I applied for the opportunity, which was then given to me on December 20 through an acceptance letter.
Miss Culture Global founder and CEO Lorraine Kljajic then contacted ENCAC to let them know that they had partnered with me.
“I then reported the matter to Bongani Nzima, who is the current Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs.
“On Monday, we went to meet in his office, and he advised me that I should work with ENCAC going forward pertaining to the Miss Culture Global contest.
“Unfortunately, I have decided to step down because I can’t work with them.
“This is not the first time that I got such an opportunity, and ENCAC would just come and take over everything,” Manana said. Worth mentioning is that TME then decided to register with Arts Culture on February 19 this year, and the Miss Culture Global founder went ahead to work with ENCAC as they crowned Melinda Mavuso, confirming her participation in Miss Culture Global.
The crowning was done on Monday at Mantenga Cultural Village. The TME director says she had paid the registration fee to ENCAC, where she paid E500, but after paying, she was allegedly told that they didn’t receive her payment. Manana provided proof of payment to this publication, showing that she had indeed paid the E500.
This publication interviewed the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs, Bongani Nzima, about the matter at hand. He shared that the Miss Culture Global organisers were the ones who decided to work with ENCAC since TME was not registered with Arts and Culture.
Discuss
“I tried to call them and discuss the issue on Monday and they showed up. I noted that there is an association that regulates pageants, and TME had not subscribed to it. She then decided to subscribe, it’s been two weeks since she subscribed. I think it was Miss Culture Global’s’ decision to work with ENCAC, as they said it was too late for them to go and select models to participate, yet there was already a crowned queen who had been crowned by ENCAC. They said they would use the current Miss Culture queen, and I thought we had agreed that next time they should work together,” Nzima said.
When Nzima was told that Manana was crying foul because this was not the first time ENCAC had taken over something she had organised for herself, he said he was not aware of ENCAC and TME’s past dealings as he is new in the ministry.
Problem
“It becomes a problem when I jump on past issues that the two parties have had in the past, which I don’t even know. They do not tell me everything; I only resolve an issue that I face with the team. The current issue is the only one that I have faced; as for their past dealings, I can’t answer them since I don’t know anything,” he said.
Minister Nzima further delved into the importance of registering with ENCAC, citing that it was wrong for TME to operate without registration. “She has an independent agency that is not registered in the country. Currently, there are issues such as human trafficking, so it is wrong to take models abroad without government consent. Now I have told her that if ENCAC gives her a problem, she must come back to me and then I will sit them down and discuss the issue. Currently, ENCAC claims that they had experienced challenges with Mbali registering and affiliating with them. I am glad that she has now registered, and we will see how this turns out in the near future,” Nzima said.