No Miss SA’s reign has been fraught with more drama than Miss Lalela Mswane’s reign in 2021. She just got crowned in October, and less than a month later, everything descended into chaos. Now, it seems like she may not even be able to take part in the Miss Universe pageant in Israel.
Ever since it was announced that the Miss Universe pageant would be held in Israel, Lalela has had to deal with the whole country calling for her to boycott the competition. It is not a good look, they say, for a beauty queen from a country with a painful history of apartheid, to be so willing to attend the pageant in a country accused of the same crimes against humanity.
Recently, the government also pulled its support for the young model and basically hung her out to dry. As of then, if Lalela was to attend the pageant anyway, she would be going as a private citizen, without the government’s support, and perhaps not even representing South Africa.
Medical experts in the country have now announced a new Covid 19 variant discovered in Mzansi, as well as in a few other neighbouring countries. In response to this announcement, many countries are not putting up travel bans against southern African countries in which the strain has been found.
Among these countries is Israel, which has announced that South African travelers are no longer being let into the country.
As soon as the announcement hit, tweeps remembered the beauty queen, who is set to grace the ceremony in December. They are remembering the fact that they told her to quit the pageant but she would not listen.
To many detractors, it feels like karma has finally hit. Tweeps are telling Lalela that she should have listened to them from the start, and that the universe works in mysterious ways. Clearly, she was never meant to attend the pageant, and they think this proves it.
Tweeps are giving her “one last chance” to bow out and save face. But Miss Lalela is yet to respond to all the noise, and it is unlikely that she will. In fact, she has kept largely silent every time the hate train has come calling.
The Miss SA pageant organization did come out once before to clarify that she would not be bowing out due to pressure. But this time, it seems like they may have to call it off, even if they don’t want to. I mean, they can’t enter Israel. What is left to do?
We sympathise with Lalela. She worked really hard to get here, and it seems like her dream is being deferred once again. But it seems like it was not meant to be, and she may have to try again another time. If it’s meant to be, it will be, right?