Aletta Shikololo
WINDHOEK – In response to Miss Namibia 2018 Selma Kamanya’s public statement on the woes of the Miss Namibia pageant, the venture running Miss Namibia has indicated it will seek legal action against the beauty queen for apparently revealing false information about the organisation.
In a press statement issued by Kamanya recently she complained of the lack of support she has been getting from the organisation during her reign, which the Miss Namibia joint venture claimed to be “untruthful and damaging”.
“The very first time the management of the organisation learned of her unfounded and damaging claims was when her statement was published in the media. The regrettable conclusion is that she is not acting in good faith and that she either deliberately selected or was influenced to select a public media platform to publish her gripes and slander the organisation,” managing director of Miss Namibia, Conny Maritz, said in a press statement.
According to the statement issued by Maritz, Kamanya said that it was not her intention to do what she has done, which does not make things any less.
She said: “We reserve our legal rights to seek damages in a court of law against her. Moreover, she apparently timed the release of her statement so shortly before this year’s crowning event for maximum impact.”
“To further add insult to injury, she uses these demonstrable falsehoods as a basis to infer and make a number of further damaging assertions, suggesting gross financial mismanagement; the abuse of ‘public funds’; dishonesty and lack of transparency, etc. These damaging assertions are as false as the basis on which they have been constructed and the organisation reserves its legal rights also in that regard,” she explained, adding that Kamanya’s statement was published without notice.
She added: “The organisation is constrained, not by preference but by necessity to curb the damage already caused by her falsehoods, to respond to them on the same platform – unpalatable as it may seem.”
In Kamanya’s statement, she complained: “Bluntly speaking, there was no real monetary reward or otherwise for becoming an ambassador for Namibia through this platform, despite the many sacrifices one has to make for the benefit of the title. These difficult circumstances are sadly also not communicated or shared with contestants before or during the process. It only comes as a rude awakening after the crowning.”
In reference to that particular complaint made by Kamanya, Martiz stated they do not propose to respond to the litany of Kamanya’s other complaints, mostly bearing on the alleged lack of financial and other support accorded her.
However, Maritz said they find it difficult to understand her assertion that she received little or no support during her preparation for the Miss Universe pageant despite being provided with a trainer and she was also sent to South Africa to receive a further week’s training.
Maritz added: “I had numerous conversations with her in my capacity as the national director of the pageant and executive director of the organisation during which a wide area of her upcoming participation at the Miss Universe pageant was traversed, including her demeanour and conduct at the Miss Universe pageant to make the most favourable impression. We are not certain how much more training she had expected.”
Kamanya also mentioned that she was emotionally abused which Maritz said was not brought to the organisation’s attention to be investigated.
However, Maritz stated, extravagant expectations and a “poor little rich girl” attitude run counter to those of the Miss Namibia Organisation.
“The organisation’s slogan is ‘Beauty for Charitable Purposes’ – and for us charity, first and foremost, starts at our Namibian home. We expect of those who bear the crown that they will primarily focus to utilise their status, beauty, talents and personality in constructive processes to engage the youth, the elderly, the infirm and the disadvantaged in society in programmes of social upliftment, poverty alleviation, continued education and, in addition, promote the constitutional values of democracy, social justice and respect for fundamental rights,” Maritz further explained.
Maritz said that those that enter the competition in the expectation that it will only be a life of glitter and glamour and that she will be cuddled in adulation, extravagant luxury or riches and use her title to seek personal wealth, are mistaken and should not be bothered.
“If she is willing to use the blessings of health and beauty received and the honour of the crown bestowed upon her to be a leader amongst her peers and to make a real, passionate and positive social impact on nation building, the Miss Namibia Organisation may just be the place to create such a life-changing opportunity for her,” she said.
Kamanya told New Era she has no comment on the matter and hung up.