Charl Blignaut went to the 1998 Miss Soweto `beauty bash’ at the Standard Bank Arena and liked what he saw
The tone of this year’s Miss Soweto pageant was made perfectly clear right at the outset of the event. Opening the proceedings in the Standard Bank Arena last Saturday was none other than local pop sensation Boom Shaka, decked out, this time, in the dishiest of yellow faux fur.
And yup, fists in the air and flying in the face of their critics, they kicked off the 20th annual Miss Soweto contest with their controversial rendition of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. This was going to be a new school pageant, one that was clearly going to target a younger audience by combining a spectacular local musical line-up with the most beautiful faces in Soweto. The beauty pageant as bash.
And indeed, the crowd went wild, lapping up every gyration and every stomp of a fur- lined boot. Well, not actually everyone. There were those, like Sophia Mabusela, Miss Noordgesicht and the eventual winner of the pageant, who did not approve of the opening number one little bit.
“It’s our national anthem,” said Sophia over the phone on Tuesday morning, “and I think it’s fine that they sing it and teach young people the lyrics, but I really don’t like the way they have changed it. I don’t think they are showing enough respect for one of Africa’s biggest anthems. I just don’t like the way they do it.”
Sophia’s favourite band on the line-up was Umfaz’ Omnyama, the next musicians to take the stage. It was to their spectacularly colourful traditional strains that each of the 30 finalists filed out and introduced themselves to the crowd.
It became clear from that very moment that Miss Soweto 1998 was not only intent on rejuvenating itself, but was also going to provide a new model for the Africanisation of the local beauty pageant. Stylishly clad in a range of genuinely divine traditional garments provided by Cape Town’s Juliette, for once the contestants looked a lot more like African queens and a lot less like the frilly cattle we have come to expect of events such as Miss South Africa.
In fact, the organisers of the annual Miss Gauteng, Miss South Africa and even Miss World pageants would have done well to pop into the Standard Bank Arena and pick up a few tips on how to reinvent the beauty pageant in the Nineties.
Which is, of course, not to say that the usual bundles of tulle were absent from the event. I mean, hell, what is a local pageant without ballgowns from Marc and Michael or Derek of Depatri (and, obviously, the endless strains of the orchestral version of The Final Countdown)?
Except that this year there was also a range of pretty damn special garments from Dennis Maponya and Nonhlanhla Simelane alongside the Marcs, Michaels and Dereks.
It was Simelane’s elegant African frock that Sophia Mabusela chose to wear as she stepped forward to lift the crown from second princess Miss Zondi (Eunelia Ngobese) and first princess Miss Dube (Yvonne Nukeri).
Alas, my personal favourites – the drop-dead gorgeous Miss Personality and Miss Zola, Faith More (more of Faith next year please), and the beamingly beautiful Miss Meadowlands (Celiwe Mbenekazi) only made it into the top five.
The judges need to know they’re selecting a good old-fashioned Aids worker in a bikini who will smile modestly and make sure no scandal taints the year of the winner’s reign. And they found all that and more in Sophia Mabusela, a standard nine pupil at The Hill school, who radiates conservative charm and charitable deeds. As it is, Sophia, already a seasoned pageant entrant at the tender age of 18, was the crowd favourite from the moment she stepped out on to the stage.
Even so, the real Miss Sowetos of the evening were Thembi and Lebo from Boom Shaka, who cranked out five or so tunes off their new album Words of Wisdom with such flash abandon that they should easily be able to lift the Miss Universe title. And Iyaya, formerly Queen from Abashante, who came out with a stunning new look to wow the crowds with her latest R&B tunes. And, for that matter, Makhendlas and Arthur and M’Du and Mashamplani. It was the line-up of the very best of new school gong that really set Miss Soweto apart.
As compre Thato “Fresh” Sikwane put it: “I challenge the SABC to televise this event live next year. It’s one of a kind and the people deserve to see why.” I couldn’t agree with Sikwane more. The added bonus of a live broadcast would be that the show might be contained within two hours – instead of the six hours it eventually took to get to the VIP bar and a much-needed double on the rocks.