Miss Barberton 2013 auditions

BARBERTON – Beautiful and intelligent women from 18 to 24 came in numbers to the

town hall on Saturday for the auditions of Miss Barberton 2013.

The pageant is organised by Future Perfect Modelling Agency. The beauty pageant is aimed at encouraging young girls to learn to love, respect themselves and make changes in society. Speaking to Mpumalanga News, the CEO of the agency, Ms Ncobile

Mhlongo indicated that since she started to enjoy modelling at any early age,

she believed that there were lot of young girls who wished to take this as a

career. She wants to give them the platform to gain more experience in the

industry.

”We believe that when you teach a girl, you teach a nation. We are

living in difficult times where youngs girl fall pregnant and they decide to

drop out of school because some of them don’t have visions. Our aim is to

encourage them to follow their dreams,“ explained Mhlongo.

The lucky girl who will be crowned Miss Barberton 2013 on December 14 is expected to play a

significant role in the community. ”We need someone who’s very intelligent, one who will be able to play a role when it comes to addressing challenges that are

faced by young people. We don’t only focus on improving lives of the young

people in our town, but this pageant will also assist the girls to gain more

exposure and experience as we have seen some of them taking a huge step and take part in the Miss Mpumalanga beauty pageant.

“I’m referring to the likes of Melissa Mabuza who became a first princess of Miss Mpumalnga in 2012 and

Simphiwe Mkhabela who made it to the top seven in 2013 and our current reigning queen, Jessica Mndebele, who were in the top 30. They all are originally from

Barberton. It shows that one day Miss Mpumalanga will come from this town,“ she said.

The standard of this competition is moving to another level comparing

to the previous years. As Mhlongo said, “The standard has improved and when we were interviewing the girls, I must say most of them know their story. It shows that judges will also face a tough time. This is part of preparing them for Miss

Mpumalanga, not only on the modelling side, but also being brainy is very

important,“ she concluded. Ms Nobuhle Manyisa, who made it to the top 15 of

the finalists of Miss Barberton 2013 said, “If I can be the new Miss Barberton,

I’m confident that I will be able to address all the challenges that are faced

by young people, using the advantage that I’m still young. I know all the

problems that we have as young people and I also know where to start.“