25 May 2016

 

Gofaone Mphela (30) of Thamaga was on Saturday crowned Miss World Telecommunications Information and Society Day (WTISD) 2016 .

Mascom’s public relations and communications manager, Barbara Gotlop, said in an interview they organised the pageant as a build up towards the commemoration of WTISD scheduled for Thamaga on June 17.

She said the pageant was their way of empowering the young women in Thamaga and also to give back to the community.

Through the proceeds, she said, they would identify an orphan in the village to assist in connecting a standpipe and renovating their house. 

He said activities such as beauty pageants brought the community together and avoid idleness of the youth which may lead to anti-social behaviour.

“Where there is entertainment, the youth and the community at large gather and enjoy themselves and this is what we want to see happening,” she stated.

Furthermore, she stated that they held a workshop with the contestants in order to interact and know them better. She said it is very important for a girl child to be empowered and know that she is worth it and can be anything she wants.

The pageant also had two categories being Miss Creativity and Miss Personality. On the category of Miss Personality, the contestants were given Mascom branded material to design their own outfit. Keirile Lesole scooped the tittle walking away with a Huawei cellphone and Mascom P200 airtime.

Miss Personality was scooped by Onalenna Kelebemang also walking away with Huawei Cellphone and Mascom P200 airtime.

 Gotlop said they will continue working with the queen and her princesses to mentor and use them in some of their promotionals and activations as a way of giving them exposure.

The coordinator of the pageant, Letty Tshwithi said he was happy about how the event ended stating that the judging and the cooperation of the community was impressive.

“Even though the turn-up was below what we expected, we are happy with the numbers of people who attended. Perhaps it was because of a cultural day that clashed with our pageant,” he said.

He continued to emphasise that it is important for people to know about technology hence they named the contestants using social media platforms like Twitter, Facetime, Google and others. 

“This was a way of familiarising people with different social media platforms that are available,” he said.

The contestants were dressed by two different designers in Thamaga and the dresses were sponsored by Mascom.

Mphela was crowned Miss WTISD 2016, with the first princess being Keirile Lesole and the second princess crown going to Boago Lesole.

For her part, Mphela stated that she is going to work with the youth in the village to empower them on technology as technology is now a daily part of human life. ENDS