Emnotweni Casino, Mpumalanga’s premier entertainment destination and partner in grand scale events such as the InniBos Arts Festival and the Annual Nelspruit Sixties Party, is delighted to announce that it will be helping to stage the 2011 Miss Deaf SA Beauty and Nature Pageant.
The Emnotweni Arena will provide the stage for the crowning of this year’s Miss Deaf SA while Emnotweni Sun and StayEasy will provide accommodation to the contestants while they’re in Nelspruit. The crowning ceremony takes place on the 8th of October 2011. This year’s Miss Deaf SA pageant promises to be the biggest yet, with more than 300 people expected to attend the event at Emnotweni Arena.
“We are thrilled and proud to be in a position to assist in staging this wonderful event. Miss Deaf SA has become a credible and popular platform for deaf young women to showcase their beauty, talents and accomplishments, while helping to build greater public consciousness of the hearing impaired community of South Africa.
“We’d certainly like to see this pageant continue to blossom as it has done in the last decade to become as revered and well-supported as the Miss South Africa competition. On behalf of the organizers, we’d like to encourage our community to support this worthwhile initiative by joining us for the glamorous crowning ceremony,” says Ig Olivier, general manager at Emnotweni Casino.
The Miss Deaf SA Beauty and Nature Pageant was born from humble beginnings in 2001 when Gert and Narda Els, both deaf, presented the first competition as way to honour and celebrate beauty, confidence, talent and self discipline amongst deaf young women in South Africa.
The competition has gone from strength to strength since then, proving that there is indeed a need and a demand for a platform like it. There have been few notable milestones in the pageant’s history. In 2004, the organisers and the entire deaf community of South Africa celebrated the crowning of Candice Morgan, the then holder of the Miss Deaf SA title, as Miss Deaf World.
In 2009, Willa Riekert from the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) volunteered to assist the Els in organizing the event. She soon had a dedicated and excited group of helpers and sponsors onboard. That year, Vicky Fourie was crowned Miss Deaf SA and Miss HESC.
In 2010 more groups, companies and individuals rallied in support of the competition, and together the founders, HESC and volunteer helpers from all over Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng hosted the largest-ever pageant.
The Miss Deaf SA pageant is now hosted and managed under the auspices of non-profit organisation, Deaf Friendly. The competition is solely-reliant on the support and donations it gets from the public and corporate concerns.
“This pageant plays an important role in creating awareness of the challenges faced and accomplishments made by deaf young ladies. At the same time, the competition provides the contestants with opportunities and experiences that will not only enrich their own lives, but will empower them to make a difference in their communities. We believe that once a girl put that crown on her head, she has the power to have a tremendous impact on society and have the ability to truly make a difference,” says Leviena Human from Miss Deaf SA.
“To all the beautiful ladies that are entering this year’s Miss Deaf South Africa’s competition – Miss Deaf South Africa has changed my life. I have seen places and experienced things I should probably never have if I did not enter the competition. Just keep on believing in yourself! If you can manage that – you are already a winner! Be proud to be who you are and go out there and have fun! “, says the current Miss Deaf SA, Mbali Nkosi.
