HARARE - Miss Zimbabwe Trust says the resignation of current Miss Zimbabwe queen Thabiso Phiri is a huge setback ahead of Miss World pageant.
The trust will soon meet to decide on who else can stand in Phiri’s shoes.
Phiri, a University of Zimbabwe law student resigned from her reign as Miss Zimbabwe last week due to yet-to-be disclosed personal reasons.
Miss Zimbabwe Trust chairperson Mary Chiwenga told the Daily News yesterday that her organisation is convening a meeting today to choose the best possible beauty queen to replace Phiri. The beauty stepped down a month into her reign under unclear circumstances.
“As you are aware preparations for Miss World pageant wre at an advanced stage and our best candidate to represent Zimbabwe was Phiri.
“Hence as a Trust we are going to sit down tomorrow (today), we then go back to the drawing board, do background checks on girls that are there and come up with the best possible candidate from the list of girls to replace Phiri,” said Chiwenga.
“The development came as a setback to the pageant considering that we are running out of time to meet Miss World pageant deadlines.
“We were not expecting this to happen and this came as a huge set back to the pageant considering that we are chasing Miss World deadlines.
“It is a must that we should send the country’s representative to Miss World this year. We do not want to be failures again this year,” said Chiwenga.
Chiwenga was not at liberty to disclose the reasons behind Phiri’s decision to prematurely quit the pageant and efforts to obtain a comment from the 22-year-old beauty queen were fruitless by the time of going to print.
Reports making the news are that Phiri resigned after her nude photographs she took of herself and sent to her boyfriend went viral on social media last week, hence the decision to quit was meant to protect Miss Zimbabwe Trust reputation ahead of the Miss World pageant to be held in London.
Part of the statement issued by the Miss Zimbabwe Trust last week reads: “Due to circumstances unforeseen at the time of holding the Miss Zimbabwe pageant on June 14 and which circumstances are peculiar and personal to the winner of the pageant Miss Thabiso Phiri, it has become imperative after her disclosure of the said circumstances that she steps down as the queen.
“It must be emphasised that the decision by Miss Thabiso Phiri to step down is personal to her and no duress or undue influence is brought to bear upon her in making this decision.
“While the Miss Zimbabwe Trust regrets this turn of events after putting so much resources into the event leading to her being crowned, the circumstances leading to her stepping down are a prerequisite to both Miss Zimbabwe and Miss World pageants.”
The pageant held in June cost a record half a million dollars.