Former Miss Malawi speaks of reign

Susan Mtegha was crowned Miss Malawi on December 24 2011 after beating 13 other contestants. Soon after being crowned, she went on to reward Malawians through “charity work for choosing her”.

July 2012, saw her raising the Malawi flag at the Miss World in China where she failed to reach the top stages in the international pageant, which was won by the host country.

This did not in any way discourage her as she said her participation was a learning experience though she said she could have done better if she prepared thoroughly and in time.

Despite Malawi not holding a national pageant to crown Mtegha’s successor, she is out of office, but with mixed reactions.

“My tenure of office is one well spent. It brought challenges and joy in the sense that I had to toil to get support for my charity work and at the same, the sharing with people from different backgrounds was awesome. But I must be honest, not even half of the plans I lined up have been fulfilled,” said Mtegha in an interview.

“My biggest challenge was resources to meet out the set plans. People out there do not value the Miss Malawi office, when the pageant is done, the beauty queen and Miss Malawi office, are left out yet these two cannot on their own gather resources for different activities,” she added.

Mtegha was thankful of the support that came from the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture though she has reservations.

“I managed to accumulate funds through a big-walk and shows I had. With that little, I held charity events. The biggest support came from the Ministry of Tourism which without them, we could have performed dismally. However, I feel the ministry ought to have done better by involving me in all activities relevant to Miss Malawi office,” she said.

Mtegha, who holds an advanced diploma in business information system and returns to school for a degree in the same field, further feels there are areas she could have done better just like the Miss Malawi organisers.

“There are places I believe I could have done better.

On the other hand, there are a lot of mistakes organisers did, but such things can be corrected. I understand them though it was a learning curve for them since that was the second time for them to run the pageant,” said Mtegha.