Miss Blantyre threatens court action over unfulfilled pledge

Miss Blantyre Chisomo Machelo has threatened to drag one of the sponsors of the beauty pageant Yanga.co for failure to fulfill the pledge of her car prize.

As one of the prizes for the pageant, Lilongwe-based company Yanga.co, announced that it was putting up a vehicle for the winner.

But six months down the line the winner Chisomo Machelo has yet to receive the promised car, a development which has angered the queen and embarrassed the office of Blantyre City Mayor who endorsed the event following news of it rebranding.

A visibly angry Machelo said she has lost her patience: “If this thing about the car was a lie, they better just come clean and tell me and the office of the Mayor of Blantyre City the way forward. I must be frank that I am not happy with the management of the Miss Blantyre.”

She added that she is not happy with the way the management of Miss Blantyre is handling the issue.

“Another issue is that they indicated, is that they will take away the car from me when my term expires, but it is now almost seven months and the car is nowhere to be seen. Did they lie to the nation about the car?” wondered Machelo.

A source at Keep Blantyre Clean initiative, who did not want to be named, also wondered why Machelo has not received her prize.

“Miss Blantyre 2015/16 had the blessing of the Mayor of Blantyre City who supported it from the word. And to be marred by such misunderstanding now is disrespect to his office. The matter will be investigated,” he said.

Yanga.co chief executive officer Ernest Kapeleta, could not be reached for comment, but chairperson of the Miss Blantyre pageant Daniel Ngwira said he has communicated to Yanga.co and advised them to drive the car from Lilongwe to Blantyre this week.

“Machelo had no driving licence that’s why the car was delaying, but now that she has completed her driving lessons the car will be coming to Blantyre. I have communicated with the executive director of Yanga.co who was out of the country,” said Ngwira.

However, this is not the first time Ngwira has promised to deliver the car to Machelo within the week.

Two months ago he also promised that the car would be driven to Blantyre in one week time, but to no avail. n