MINIYOTHABO Baloyi-Chiwenga, the wife of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga was announced as the new chairperson of the Miss Universe Zimbabwe.
After a long hiatus from the international stage, Zimbabwe made a comeback to the Miss Universe pageant, with Brooke Bruk Jackson serving as their representative last year.
The organisation held a launch event last week which introduced the next edition of the event, where Baloyi-Chiwenga was unveiled.
The new chairperson heaped praises on Brooke Bruk’s performance in El Salvador last year.
The second edition, in which Brooke Bruk will crown her successor, will begin on April 20. The top 30 will be revealed on May 18, with the finale taking place on May 18.
An army colonel, Baloyi-Chiwenga recently married the Vice-President Chiwenga after the latter’s bitter divorce with former model Marry Mubaiwa.
The 46-year-old army colonel runs Style By Minnie, which operates high-end boutiques in Harare.
Baloyi-Chiwenga is said to be one of the sharp minds in the Zimbabwe National Army. She speaks about six languages including Mandarin, French and Zulu.
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She is also a government linguist/Chinese translator and Chinese lecturer at Zimbabwe Staff College as well as a Mandarin for Business lecturer at Harare Institute of Technology.
Ironically, the embattled ex-wife of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, Marry Mubaiwa is the licence holder of the Miss World Zimbabwe, and has been accused by industry mates of holding the pageant at ransom.
She took over from Kiki Divaris as patron of Miss Zim Trust in 2012. The last Miss World Zimbabwe event was held in 2018 and was won by Belinda Potts.
In 2015 there was uproar over the involvement of army and Zanu PF officials in the Miss World Zimbabwe pageant.
Critics argued that the involvement of the military in the beauty pageant took away the glamour and glitz that is ordinarily associated with such contests the world over.
At the pageant Chaplain General Joseph Nyakudya, an army official, gave the opening prayer while in attendance was also the then Information, Media and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo, the late and former Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke, businessman Phillip Chiyangwa and the then Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi, among other guests.
The then Airforce boss and the late Perrance Shiri was also present.
Mubaiwa is currently on trial for allegedly attempting to murder Chiwenga while he was receiving medical treatment in South Africa for an undisclosed ailment.
