Local beauty does province proud
Local beauty queen, Nolungelo Shongwe did the province and the Nkomazi subregion proud on Saturday when she came second in the Indoni Miss Cultural Competition final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
MALALANE – Local beauty queen, Nolungelo Shongwe did the province and the Nkomazi subregion proud on Saturday when she came second in the Indoni Miss Cultural Competition final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
Nolungelo, who is a Suikerland Secondary School grade 11 learner, was crowned the Mpumalanga provincial Indoni queen on July 5. Heading into the finals she promised to do the entire province proud.
“I am confident that I will make it. The competition is not only measured in physical beauty. Inner beauty counts as well and I know the values instilled by my mother and grandmother will definitely carry me through,” she told our sister publication Mpumalanga News, ahead of the final.
The Indoni Cultural Festival was launched and established in 2011 and is a youth empowerment organisation chaired by Dr Nomcebo Mthembu. It was created to promote the development of young people through arts and culture, promoting moral regeneration and the appreciation of cultural diversity.
It also promotes social cohesion among the various culture groups of South Africa and advocates pride in one’s heritage.
The project is aimed at helping young people develop strategies and approaches that will arm them to avoid and deal with the effects of the social evils facing our society today.
The overall winner of the competition was Indoni YamaZulu, Nomkhosi Nzuza, while Shongwe was the runner-up representing Mpumalanga as Indoni YamaSwazi.
The Face of Indoni prize, which is selected based on the finalist with the most votes, went to Indoni YamaNdebele, Thobile Chilli.
The Miss Ubuntu Prize, which is awarded to the finalist who demonstrated kindness, humaneness, warmth and compassion towards all around her during the period leading up to the final, went to Indoni YamaTsonga Kanetani Mathebula.
Speaking at the event, the minister of arts and culture, Nathi Mthethwa, rejected any form of discrimination of an African by an African. He said, “Our children and ourselves must know where we come from, we must know our culture. We must know our traditions and customs. We must know our languages and speak them but above all we must know that while we come from different backgrounds there is one thing that unifies us – we are South Africans and we are Africans. That is why there shouldn’t be any discrimination against any African by people of South Africa.”
The minister of communication, Faith Muthambi, congratulated the winners and said it was projects like this that would help bring about moral regeneration among the youth.
“We are very proud to have witnessed our different and diverse cultures on display through exhibitions, fashion shows and then on Saturday the pageant! Projects like Indoni will help bring moral regeneration to our youth and restore core values and pride in our identities,” Muthambi said.
Meanwhile, the founder of the beauty pageant, Mthembu, said the youth needed to realise they were telling a story by the manner in which they conducted their lives.
She said, “Today our theme is storytelling. I think it’s very important that you remember that back in the days most of us grew up with lot of storytelling. There was always a meaning and a teaching, some principle you got from that story. Not many of those stories are told to our young people today. Nowadays the kids need to know that they are storytellers of their lives.”
