By Byron Mutingwende
The local girls were urged to take pride in the African identity at a colourful event organised by the Harare Junior Council on Friday 16 December 2016.
“Dawn of African Beauty” was the theme this year for the Harare Junior Council’s Miss Harare Junior competitions. After figuring out that most African girls where not comfortable in their skin, hair and to a certain extent their tone, our main focus was to glorify the “Natural African Beauty”. Not only was this event done to search for the ambassador of junior council but also to raise money for the various projects we are going to have next year,” said Guidance Gunundu, the Publ;ic Relations Officer of the Harare Junior Council.
Despite the economic hardships in the country, the annual event held at the well-known movie hub Sterkinekor Cinema near Eastgate Mall was a huge success.
Langa Lloyd, the Founder of Langa cosmetics and role model to many in the growing fashion industry was the guest of honor and she gave an inspiring speech which highly encouraged the girls to be comfortable in their skin and not be deceived by the term “yellow bone” as there is great beauty in the natural dark African skin. She showed her appreciation of the confidence and fluency in today’s teenagers, which she said was not there in her generation.
The judging panel consisted of three successful and beautiful women namely Thobekile Sithole, Brita Masalethulini and Mazvita Chakawa. Youth from different backgrounds thronged the event to support the great initiative started by the hardworking junior councillors. The junior mayor of Bulawayo also graced the event
The entertainers lived to their billing. Thamsanqa Moyo aka Tamy’s “Tsoka ndibereke”and “Deep Down” left the audience mesmerised as they took to dancing.
There were 14 finalists selected from a huge number of contestants who auditioned. They competed in three categories, which were Cultural wear, Career wear and Evening Wear.
Fiwe awards were on offer. Zvikomborero Manyowa, who was a crowd pleaser from her perfectly-calculated modelling to her ear catching question answering, won the Miss Popularity award.
Rosaline Magwaza took the miss personality title and was not a surprise to many as she smiled throughout the whole show and she exuded confidence that showed that she had the ability to interact with any person and get along with them in a short space of time. The honor of second princess was given to Ruvimbo Munemo who merely fell short of clinching the Miss Harare title. Nothando Ncube was unquestionably the first princess as she had a certain charisma entitled to her.
Royalty came knocking on Maria Makelve’s door and she was the fortuitous one to answer and was handed over the highly praised throne by 2014-2015’s Miss Harare Junior-Ashleigh Gonde in the absence of Miss Harare Junior 2015-2016 Floret Chikomwe.
It was all celebration for the Makelve family and the other finalists as they did not go empty handed but with a great experience from their four week training program.
“We would like to express our greatest gratitude to the following companies who made this event come to fruition. These were Ahona graphics, Doves, Women’s University in Africa, Standards Association of Zimbabwe, Pioneer Zimbabwe, Black Opal and Tayana Spa.
“As Harare Junior Council we are a non-profit organization run by philanthropic teenagers passionate about changing their community from different schools in Harare and our mission statement is “MAKING HARARE CHILD FRIENDLY”. We have many projects planned our next being the Christmas gift giving to the orphans on the 22nd of December.” Gunundu said.
For more information on partnering with Harare Junior Council or to show your support contact Honorable Councillor Guidance Gunundu (PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICR (2016-2017) on 0739153662 and ggunundu98@gmail.com.