DISORDER and confusion continue to haunt the inaugural Miss Heritage World with the new team that has been tasked with taking the pageant forward still unaware of the venue a day before the rescheduled date.
Winstone Antonio,Own correspondent
After the cancellation of the pageant last week, Tare Munzara, chief chairman of the pageant, announced that the event would be held tomorrow.
But indications yesterday proved the event was still in limbo. A new team led by media-shy Ashley Edwards on Tuesday admitted that the mood was low in the camp.
He said they had since resolved issues that had led to the postponement of the event.
“I know what you want to hear from me, but it is unfortunate that from where we are coming and heading, I am not at liberty to divulge more details for public consumption,” he said.
“We have just been contracted at the 11th hour, but definitely we can assure the nation that the show will take place.”
A source who spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity said the state of affairs at the pageant indicated that the organisers were still struggling to put their house in order to host the show.
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“All is not well in camp with the truth being that the organisers have failed to amass adequate funds and I doubt if the pageant will go ahead this week as being claimed,” the source said.
Reports are that some of the contestants representing Guinea, Lesotho and Zambia left the country unceremoniously over the weekend.
The organisers are also struggling to come up with prizes for the eventual winners if the grand finale does come to fruition.
A total of 18 nations had sent representatives to the inaugural event, but insiders said only 15 would take to the ramp come the final day. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), initially rumoured to be taking over, yesterday watered down the speculation.
ZTA chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke said he was just reading all about the pageant from the media.
“I just hear that they are going ahead on Friday (tomorrow), while some of the girls are said to have broken camp,” Kaseke said.
“ZTA does not have any legal grounds to take over the pageant, but whoever is speculating that we are going to take over is not wrong since we are the custodians of brand Zimbabwe from a tourism perspective. When things like this happen, the right-thinking members of society do expect us to clean up.”
