Businesswoman and television producer Carol Bouwer has announced this week that the Miss World South Africa pageant will be hosted in “Soweto”.
Bouwer is the owner of Carol Bouwer Productions (CBP), which was granted the licence to organise and host the Miss World SA pageant last month.
She told delegates gathered at the Soweto Investment Conference on Thursday that the South African leg of the annual global pageant will be held at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, just a few kilometres from Soweto.
Bouwer was the programme director on the first day of the two-day Soweto Investment Conference.
The licence to host the Miss World SA was previously held by Sun International, custodians of the Miss South Africa pageant.
“They [Sun International] would basically upon hosting the Miss South Africa send someone to Miss World, Miss Universe, and Miss Supranational and various others,” explained Bouwer.
“Now the Miss World office has given CBP the responsibility to send a rep to them. It means the person that wins Miss SA this year cannot go to the Miss World pageant,” she said.
Bouwer said she decided to bring the pageant to a venue that will benefit Soweto residents and businesses to act on what businesses share at platforms such as the Soweto Investment Conference.
“As opposed to procuring from your usual suspects such as Sandton I can really fortify the businesses here. I can ask people to stay in the BnBs here when they come for the Miss World SA pageant,” she said.
“Everything goes to spaces that do not need to be fortified. We can’t come from here [Soweto] and watch the decay and not do anything about it,” she said.
She said Nasrec is also accessible to people from different parts of the country.
“It is easy for everyone to get here, whether you are coming from Vereeniging or Pretoria,” she said.
“I’m excited. I’m going to Africanise it; make it a proudly African but essentially global for people to see that we do not need to alter ourselves,” she said.
The pageant will be held at the end of October on a date that is yet to be announced. Bouwer said women who are interested in entering the pageant still have five days to enter before entries close.
“We are currently evaluating the entrances for all the different provinces,” she said.
“The international competition is taking place in December in India,” she said. “The Miss World SA winner will represent us in the global pageant,” she said.
“It is a good tourism driver for the country. We can get the young lady to market South Africa and change the narrative about our country,” she said.
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