Royal boost to Miss SA title ambitions
Fresh from finishing as second princess at Miss Africa 2020 last month, Tondani Maimela says she is now gunning for the Miss SA title.
The pageant beauty from Ha-Muraga village, outside Thohoyandou comes armed with the full support of all her community members, including the Matsila royal family led by Chief Livhuwani Matsila, who are ready to help her realise her dream of becoming the first Miss SA from Venda.
Like Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi, the 24-year-old model values natural looks. She competed with 22 girls from other African countries in
Lagos, Nigeria for the Miss Africa title. But she says this is just the beginning as she is aiming for the sky.
Chief Matsila was the first to celebrate Maimela’s achievements, with her family calling her “the pride of her village and an inspiration among the rural women”.
Matsila said he urged Maimela to participate in this year’s Miss SA pageant so that she could continue inspiring young women in her community and women in South Africa.
Matsila further congratulated Maimela’s parents for grooming their daughter and raising her with the discipline and character required to achieve excellence in life.
Maimela’s father, Milton Maimela, was overjoyed at the chief’s commitment to support and guide his daughter.
“I’ve no words to express my happiness that ¥nally my daughter will get professional support in order to realise her ambition of becoming the next Miss South Africa.”
The same sentiments were echoed by Maimela’s herself, who said: “This is a great opportunity for me to showcase my talent and natural
intellect so I can grow professionally. I’m deeply touched to receive this opportunity to plough back to communities in rural areas in order to fight poverty and empower others.”
About her feat at the Miss Africa pageant, Maimela said finishing as second princess outside the country was the much-needed affirmation and boost to help her focus on bigger and better titles such as Miss SA, Miss World or Miss Universe.
“Being recognised at the Miss Africa competition made me realise that I have what it takes to become the first Miss SA from Venda.”
However, before Maimela’s dream to become the first Venda Miss SA can be realised, she first has to build a portfolio of evidence of community and charity work in order to score a nomination in the top 16 finalists.
To show her determination, Maimela has already established her own NGO, Eunioa SA.
It has since partnered with the Matsila Community Development Trust to work on numerous community projects.
She said their partnership has already benefited the community as they have planned a back-to-school campaign during which they intend to donate school shoes, uniform and hygiene hampers to primary school pupils.
Maimela added that her NGO, with Matsila Community Development Trust, managed to organise 100 bicycles for pupils who travel long
distances to schools and they are ready for distribution.
She said through the partnership she will also be meeting with the top matric achievers from Vhembe district to reward them for their achievements. The beauty, who is about to graduate with an LLB degree from Unisa, said she still needed more sponsors to support her
youth entrepreneurship programmes, which she intends to use to help grow existing businesses owned by young people.
Maimela also expressed her wish to meet President Cyril Ramaphosa.
By Aubrey Mothombeni
mothombenia@sundayworld.co.za
Miss Africa run inspires Tondani
