Blame game over Miss Malawi fiasco

The aftermath of the Miss Malawi pageant has been marred with controversy which has degenerated into a social media fallout with previous queen Tionge Munthali accusing the event’s organisers of disrespect.

Munthali abandoned the event at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe midway on Saturday for alleged disrespect, bullying and embarrassing treatment targeted at her by both organisers of the event Alpha Arts and State House personnel.

The developments culminated in Munthali allegedly being thrown out of the venue after State House officials deemed her dressing not appropriate for someone who was expected to be close to First Lady Monica Chakwera, who attended the event as the guest of honour.

The outcome led to outbursts from the former Miss Malawi shared on her WhatsApp statuses which targeted both the event’s organisers and State House agents.

“I got bullied so much as Miss Malawi. I developed serious anxiety from it, at no point did the organisers of the event come to my defence. Tonight, I got bullied again. I was told I could not handover the crown because I was inappropriately dressed,” she wrote in one of her posts.

only be available to handle over the crown as tradition demands.

“If they felt like they didn’t need me there, they were supposed to communicate to me. I would have respected myself and stayed home. Or even they could have said what my role exactly would be, I would have restricted myself to that,” she said.

Among other things, Munthali said the organisers did not acknowledge her presence at the event and let her make her way into the venue without any protocols and not wearing the sash and crown which she was told was with State House at the time.

She said when she got inside, there was no seat assigned to her and eventually she was whisked out to have her dress inspected.

Munthali said: “This was not a State function. It was a beauty pageant. If they had told me the time that I was coming in, but they waited until I got in and sat down. I felt violated. I felt really bullied. The organisers stood there and offered no protection.”

Asked if she still stands for what she shared on social media, she was quick to respond: “I don’t regret. If I were to share it again, I would do so. I was traumatised. I can’t take anything back.”

The model has urged organisers of such events to do thorough research to establish what they want so the country can move with time.

On her part, one of the event’s lead organisers, Tina Kendricks dismissed Munthali’s assertions and attributed the outcome to lack of communication between her team and the former queen.

“A lot has been said, initially we did not want to comment on this. But we are working on an official statement which we will share for people to know the truth,” she said.

In a statement later yesterday afternoon, Alpha Arts said the outcome was in line with State House standard protocol which required vetting for people coming in contact with the First Lady.

Kendricks said there was an option for Munthali to change into another dress, but she did not like the dresses that were available and she opted to leave on her own accord.

“While we are not judgemental of people’s dressing choices, people have to understand that every event has its protocols that have to be adhered to, especially where the guests are concerned,” she said.

Seasoned beauty pageant organiser Carver Bhima, who also attended the event, refused to dwell much on the politics that was involved to have the First Lady hand over the crown to the new queen instead of her predecessor.

He said although the practice being a tradition, maybe the organisers had a good reason to assign Chakwera to do the task.

“I would not say it was wrong. Maybe it was, but in the absence of Munthali they had to be someone prominent to hand over the crown and the First Lady fit the bill. It is not the first time a political figure has been invited to such an event. Last time we had wife to the Vice-President [Mary Chilima] in attendance,” he said.