Sparks fly as Half-Ghanaian is crowned Miss Zimbabwe (UK)

THE Miss Zimbabwe UK beauty contest was thrown into disarray this week with claims that winners of last weekend's contest at the Croydon Hotel in London were not Zimbabwean.

To compound an already volatile situation, a company trading as Miss Zimbabwe UK which has conducted the beauty contest for the past nine years has threatened to sue the ZimExpo UK organisers who hosted the pageant on the sidelines of the ZimExpo Business Exhibition.

Hilda Mate-Kole, a 22-year-old Business and IT student born in Ghana to a Zimbabwean dad and a Ghanaian mum won the contest, sparking a volley of protests from other contestants who also questioned the quality of judging.

"I get the feeling it was pre-arranged," one of the contestants told New Zimbabwe.com. "They cannot say it's a Miss Zimbabwe contest and then go on to recruit foreigners who go on to win under dubious circumstances."

It got worse as it emerged that the first princess also has foreign links. Angel Nxumayo, 17, was born in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa and can hardly be called a Zimbabwean.

She told New Zimbabwe.com: "My mum is Zimbabwean and my dad is South African. I guess I qualify to represent Zimbabwe that way."

New Zimbabwe.com deliberately delayed naming the winners of the contest while weighing the legal implications.

Marcus Mariko who has organised the Miss Zimbabwe UK contest for nine years said: "I feel sorry for the contestants because they have been used by someone wanting to make a quick buck from gate takings while giving them crap prizes. They were robbed."

He added: "The issue is with my legal team and the organisers will be dealt with."

As if the crisis couldn't get any worse, he announced that he was still forging ahead with his original plans to have a Miss Zimbabwe UK contest on New Year's Eve at London's Custon House Hotel.

Written questions have been submitted to the Zim Expo 2004 organisers who have yet to respond.