25 Oct 2015

Nametso Raditshephe was crowned Miss Rural Area Development Programme (RADP), Kgomodiatshaba on Wednesday. 

The 19-year-old beauty queen who originates from Kgomodiatshaba, stood above the rest to claim the crown after giving her compatriots a tough time with a walk that forced the judges to stare without a blink. 

In an interview, Raditshephe said she was happy to have won the crown beating her peers even though she knew that the competition was tough.

She said beauty pageants such as this one gave them an opportunity as young people from rural areas to learn new things and experience life in a better way.

Raditshephe said she intended to work with the youth and engage them to take responsibility of their lives.

She added that most of the youth in her village engaged in anti-social behaviour like alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy which destroy their lives and she wants to encourage them to forgo such acts which take them nowhere.

She further said she will have an opportunity to choose a project of her own that will give her a leeway in dealing with the youth because they are the future leaders of tomorrow. 

The Miss RADP Affirmative Action beauty pageant, which is on its third year running aims at empowering young women who live in rural areas and develop their self-worth.

The chief social worker in Kgatleng District Council, Ms Baledzi Makubate, said the pageant’s main objective is to promote inclusion of young women in mainstream society and build their self-esteem through participation in national events. 

She said the young women are groomed and nurtured so that they can find their sense of worth and belonging which gives them an opportunity to interact with others at the same level.

Ms Makubate said young women living in rural areas are mostly disadvantaged by lack of resources/services in their villages but the beauty pageant has totally challenged that status quo as the pageant gives them opportunities to explore and needed exposure to learn.

She further said the beauty queens will go for a two to three week boot camp where they will be taught self-mastery, agricultural opportunities, HIV and AIDS and Youth Development Fund opportunities among others.

Ms Makubate said they plan to engage former beauty queens to teach their local queen whatever she needs to know about beauty pageants and life in general. 

This she said, will ready her for the upcoming Miss RADP Affirmative Action crown slated sometime in November this year. ENDS