The Sunday News
Langalakhe Mabena, Sunday News Correspondent
As a way of celebrating this year’s Culture Week which started on 15 May and ended yesterday, Planet Kadder Academy partnered with Hope for Children and Youth Foundation Trust to hold Miss Gwanda Culture.
The pageant, which is meant to empower young girls to realise their full potential, was scheduled for last night. The culture week was brought to life by United National Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 2001 and proclaimed 21 May as the World Culture Day of celebrating cultural diversity for dialogue and diversity.
Miss Gwanda Culture is among other world festivities held during the culture week, which was this year celebrated to bring social cohesion and integration through the arts and culture in the face of Covid-19, the organiser of the catwalk Proficience “Kadder” Cadder said:
“This event is going to be held annually and it came to fruition because we have noted that girls, especially in the rural areas and those who are underprivileged, are sidelined when it comes to modelling. Most pageants would ask that all the models have a strong educational background and this becomes unfair to those with talent, but who can’t afford to go to school. As Miss Gwanda Culture, we accommodate everyone, yibo ubuntu bethu,” said Kadder.
To make sure the ship sails smoothly, the pageant got sponsorship from South Africa-based businessman Gerald “Master G” Mabasa, who owns Master G Enterprise Holdings. Master G Enterprise Holdings offers different services such as construction, beverages, clothing, media and entertainment. The company also provided R10 000 for prizes.
The winner was set to walk away with R5 000, with the first and second princess getting R2 500 each.
“I strongly believe in empowering dreams especially of the youth. Sponsoring the pageant is part of empowering young Africans and transforming our culture. Kadder has a burning desire to change people’s lives and her objectives are simple and also meet our ideas which is the reason why we jumped on board,” said Master G.
Master G said the queen of the catwalk will also get an ambassadorial deal with the company for the whole year.
“If she is also talented in music, she will also be accorded a recording contract with our studio,” said Master G.
