Sepetu blames racism for poor show

MISS Vodacom Tanzania Wema Sepetu has finally broken her silence and cited racism as the main reason why she performed dismally in the Miss World beauty pageant held in Poland recently.

Sepetu who failed to shine in the event which involved 100 contestants told reporters yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the media and event supervisors favoured contestants from Europe and of European origin.

She said most contestants from Africa were ignored, with the exception of Miss Angola who won the Miss World Africa title to succeed Nancy Sumari of Tanzania who won the title last year.

Sepetu said that she tried her level best to represent well the country by participating in all four fast tracks competitions preceding the main event, but she could not excel.

The fast tracks; beauty for purpose, talent, Beach beauty and Sport went to Venezuela, Northern Ireland and Canada respectively.

Commenting on the event, the Miss Tanzania organizing committee attributed the failure of Sepetu to inadequate preparation time due to the rescheduling of Miss World event which was earlier planned for December.

The committee Director, Hashim Lundenga, added that the four track events which gave chances for those who excel to book their tickets as finalists in the main event had no guiding principles making it difficult for most contestants to shine.

However the committee agreed that another factor which may have contributed to Sepetu’s failure was the failure by the committee to provide to the world event organisers vcd and videotape copies of Sepetu’s participation in community activities before heading to Warsaw.

Instead the committee had sent still pictures which were difficult to assess. Lundenga also disclosed that his committee had brief meeting with the organiser to discuss on the fast track issue and others and they are looking forward for big change in the next event

“What matters here is that they have to give us the guidelines and other directives as early as possible before the event so that we can prepare our representative accordingly,” he said.
This year’s Miss World title went to Miss Czech Republic, Tatana Kucharovu. Africa last won the title in 2001 when Miss Nigeria was crowned the world’s number one beauty queen.

Source: Daily News