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| Entertainment |
| Landson clinches Ms Malawi crown |
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by
Joseph Langa, 28 February 2005
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16:57:23
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Rachel Landson was Saturday crown the new Miss Malawi at Kamuzu Institute of Sports in Lilongwe at a function where the former queen Florence Zeka was barred from attending and denied opportunity to hand over the crown to the new queen.
Zeka confirmed in an interview yesterday that Calver Bhima, director of Events Management Limited (EML), the organisers of the pageant had given instructions not to allow her attend the show.
“I went to the door, but was not allowed in,” said Zeka.
EML spokesperson Irene Nkhwazi-Chihana said Zeka was barred from entry because she went to court to get an injunction to stop the show from happening. But the injunction was not granted.
She said it was agreed by the whole organising committee that Zeka should not be allowed to attend “because she was going to fast”.
“The director sat down and said no Florence is going too fast and she is not attending tonight’s [Saturday] show because it will be hypocricy on her part,” Chihana-Nkhwazi said.
“I did confirm with her that there was no way she could embarrass us one minute and then the next minute she wanted to be associated with us. I know that she came to the show and one of the organisers had to tell her that she was not allowed to attend,” she added.
Zeka said she hired the lawyer [Jones Gulumba] to help her get back K125,000 which was the balance from her prize money of K250,000 she was supposed to get from EML for winning the title last year.
She said she tried to remind the company to give her the balance “but they have always been giving me funny excuses and saying I am rude”.
Gulumba confirmed he went to court representing Zeka to seek an injunction to stop the crowning of the new Miss Malawi until his client is paid the remaining balance of the prize money.
He said they wanted to stop the function because he felt his client will not be given her money after the new queen has been crowned.
But Gulumba said he was surprised that she was barred from attending the show because he said they invited her through him in a letter where they were offering to pay the money in installments of K10,000 per month.
He said he refused the offer and he will proceed with the court case at the High Court in Blantyre to get the money.
The new queen, 21-year Landson who holds a Diploma in Mass Communication from Blantyre Business College was crowned queen after beating 16 other contestants, including Rhoda Nyirenda and Zackie Badat who are the first and second princess, respectively.
Landson who has been crowned the country’s tourism ambassador will get cash and other prizes totalling K750 ,000 of which K250,000 will be cash from the organisers.
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