Mohalenyane Phakela
THE annual Miss LUCSA beauty pageant has been postponed indefinitely after the organisers failed to secure sponsorship in time for this year’s edition.
Miss LUCSA is a non-bikini contest committed to promoting and celebrating the beauty and innate potential of students in institutions of higher learning in the country. It also seeks to discover beautiful and intelligent ladies and unify Lesotho’s tertiary students.
The pageant is organised by Lesotho Universities and Colleges Sports Association (LUCSA), a sporting association for local universities and colleges which was established in 2003.
Last year’s edition was won by 21-year-old Malori Potloane from Lerotholi Polytechnic, with Nthabeleng Mokotjo (20) and Mamanti Mapuru (21) from the Centre for Accounting Studies the first and second runner-ups respectively.
The pageant was contested by 11 beauties from the host Lesotho Cooperative College, Lesotho Agricultural College, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, National Health Training College, Centre for Accounting Studies and Lerotholi Polytechnic. National University of Lesotho students were unable to participate as the institute was competing in the Intervarsity games which also included Botswana and Swaziland national universities.
The Miss LUCSA pageant is normally held at this time of the year or during the intercollege games which were held two weeks ago. However, according to the organisers, they had to postpone the contest to a later date as they are yet to secure a sponsorship deal to upgrade the pageant.
“We are hoping to make this pageant one of the best in the country as it features different institutions of higher learning in the country,” LUCSA’s Public Relations Officer, Khothalang Ramoorosi, said in an interview with the Weekender this week.
“We are hoping to have prizes that can entice beauty queens to participate in the pageant, and the prizes should also contribute towards the development of their academic work, such as laptops.
“The lack of sponsorship is also paralysing our sports sector as the games which we recently held did not get any funding at all. We are just hoping the tables will turn and some Good Samaritan will come to our aid.”
He added that they had approached the corporate sector in a bid to sponsor the event saying the matter was still up in the air.
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“We are hoping to have electronic message (SMS) lines, operated by the two telecommunications companies within the country, where people can vote for their favourite contestant as this will help us get our winners the prizes they deserve, but then negotiations are still in progress,” said Ramoorosi.
He said this time around, they were working on increasing the number of entrants from last year’s 11 to at least around 20 from each institution.
