Miss ZimUSA 2010

Coming from the same neighborhood, Thandi Muringa is someone I have known for many years. On Croome road, her house back home is synonymous with angry German shepherd dogs, rural chickens running around the luscious green grass and the signature Madza 323 her dad always drove. If my memory serves me correct there was once a yellow Pulsar that once rocked the streets of Montrose before the 323?

Living in the same neighborhood did not necessarily mean we talked to each other; moreover Thandi was younger than me. We always bumped into each other at the shops or by the vendors buying sweets. I knew she had an older brother and a younger one. Back then she was affectionately known as Emma from Henry low – the junior school she went to.

It was in High school where our friendship grew and in high school too where I discovered she was a loudmouth. After joining Toastmasters, Thandi was able to put her boisterous skills to good use. Thandi was the Form 1 who always had something to say. Rumors circled around school that she was so clever she had skipped a grade in junior school. I still need to ask her if this was true.

I have watched today’s Miss ZimUSA grow into the amazing young woman she has progressively become. Thandi was one person who always told it like it is. During her O’levels her and her gang of friends tormented the poor teachers and the prefects too. Yet, not once did she neglect her grades.



Looking at Thandi today, I have no doubt that she is destined for greater heights. She threw me off a bit with the pageant because she did not strike me as the ‘pageant chick’ but when I connect it to her blog, lesson learnt – beauty with a purpose. We have the brains, which we utilize by going to school and planning our futures, but what about our looks?




I come from the school of thought where pageants have just ended up as a tool for young girls to flaunt their bodies and sleeping with the judge or an influential person is the order of the day - if you would like to win. Perhaps not all pageants are like that and it is not always beauty without brains that must walk down the ramps. And who is to say who has brains and who does not? I leave that question to you.

I was on Skype with Miss ZimUSA the other day – one of the many celebrities I skype with occasionally. She is still as loud as ever and she had me laughing 5 seconds into the conversation. I do not speak with her often but traces of the American twang can be found here and there yet she is still very much down to earth with Ndebele words rolling of her tongue. Thandi has never once tried to portray herself as a ‘salad’ or ‘umnosebrigade.’

Here is a must see video of MissZimUSA...

For those of you who know her, the vanity has not disappeared. Those of you who will meet her one day; no it is not your typical vanity, it is what she believes she was born with – and with the crown on her head, there is no disputing it.

I said to her 'Emma you are the queen of laughing at people, what would have happened if you lost?’ She responded by telling me that her friends had already concluded that they were planning to laugh their heads off with her to give her a taste of her own medicine, but with her confident self – she out did them and won.



Long before the crown, Thandi was very busy with a lot of charity work. Visit her blog to see what Miss ZimUSA was up to before she was crowned. One event I loved was the wine night – Party for a cause. Where friends gathered and drank for charity. It would be nice to have a glass of Merlot on a clear conscience – a child out there, counting on you to drink.






From our conversation I also gathered that Miss ZimUSA will be going on a serious charity drive. She cannot do this alone; from wherever you are we can rally behind her in whatever way we can. Let’s put our weight behind Miss ZimUSA and make 2010 a year to remember.