EL woman off to Mumbai to represent country at top pageant
A DUNCAN Village woman will represent the country in Mumbai this year at the Magnificent Woman Icon (MWI) pageant.
This international competition is managed locally by a non-profit organisation and independently owned and operated by Michigan Pageants.
Growing up, Zintle Zincume, 23, had always been interested in pageants but her parents never allowed her to compete.
Zincume said her parents always told her that she needed to complete school first and not participate in anything that would distract her. It was only when she went to university at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, where she graduated in radiology, that she started entering pageants.
“I desperately wanted to prove my parents wrong. So when I was away in Cape Town I participated in pageants. It is only then, when I won or made the top ranks, that they realised that I could juggle both academics and pageants,” she said.
Zincume has entered pageants such as Miss CPUT, Miss Cape Town, Miss Ribbon for Roses, where she was crowned first princess and, most recently, Miss Heritage last year, where she was in the top seven.
Zincume, who is now a radiographer at Bedford hospital, said she has always been passionate about community work and helping those less fortunate.
She said she enjoyed pageants because they also brought her closer to charity work. For the past year she has worked closely with the Excon foundation, which is aimed at helping convicts in social integration and life after prison.
Zincume regularly hosts pageants and motivational talks at disadvantaged schools in and around East London. She is currently running a back-to-school campaign, to collect uniforms for those in need.
The pageant will take place between February 18 and 25.
Finalists will participate in various activities, photoshoots and interviews, with the finale taking place on February 26.