Swear on the Bible you've got no nudes, Zimbabwe beauty pageant tells models

10 February 2016 - 11:09 By Agency Staff
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The frustrated organisers of Zimbabwe's biggest beauty pageant are making contestants swear on the Bible that they've never had nude photos taken, according to a report.

Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Image: Miss World Zimbabwe via Facebook
Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Image: Miss World Zimbabwe via Facebook
Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Miss World Zimbabwe 2015 winners.
Image: Miss World Zimbabwe via Facebook

The last two winners of the Miss World Zimbabwe contest have had to step down when nude photos of them were leaked.

So this year those in charge are taking a tough line, according to the official Chronicle newspaper on Tuesday.

"They'll take oaths holding a Bible upon checking in for boot camp next month," Miss Zimbabwe Trust spokesperson Tendai Chirau told the newspaper.

Models last year had to sign a declaration saying they'd never posed for nudes but that didn't stop Emily Kachote entering and winning the contest before being dethroned. She argued that she'd not knowingly posed for the pictures, which were apparently taken by an ex.

But the Miss Zimbabwe Trust maintained that her behaviour was immoral.

Kachote's dethronement followed a similar nude photo leak for Miss World Zimbabwe 2014, Thabiso Phiri. She too lost her crown, though the trust insisted she'd stepped down of her own accord.

Chirau told the Chronicle: "All we ask for this year is honesty and integrity from our queens."

One of the rules of the competition reads: "Winners of the Miss World Zimbabwe beauty pageant whether a title holder or a runner-up, must not have posed nude professionally or socially in all forms of media."

The Miss Zimbabwe nudes scandal opened up a conversation about who was really to blame for Zimbabwe's sex tape scandals, and why the ex-boyfriends who leak photos are not prosecuted.

This year's final is to be held on April 16 in Harare.

Apart from making models swear on the Bible, the trust is taking extra precautions to make sure they don't lie: if nudes leak during or after the competition, the winner will have to pay back "all the money we will have used on her," Chirau was quoted as saying.

Dethroned queen Emily Kachote maintains an active Facebook page -- on which she regularly posts news of other people's sex tapes.

Source: News24

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