Property belonging to Miss Curvy, a local pageant targetting voluptuous women, will be sold by public auction on January 20 to pay off an unspecified debt owed to Treasure Point Travel Tours.
The local pageant, which ran its last edition in August last year, is run by former model Mercy Mushaninga’s Zim Gossip Modelling Agency.
The property to go under the hammer at Ruby Auctions includes 29 office chairs, 13 four-piece computer sets, two computer desks, an office desk, two swivel chairs, a portable air conditioner, four HP printers, an Epson printer and a two-piece computer set.
Though the Daily News failed to get a comment from both Mushaninga and Treasure Point Travel Tours yesterday, the pending public auction comes as no surprise given Miss Curvy’s well-documented financial problems which have been worsened by the pageant’s failure to secure sponsorship.
In an effort to attract sponsorship from the tourism sector, Mushaninga took the fourth and last edition of Miss Curvy to the resort town of Kariba but the support she had hoped for did not materialise.
The only support that came her way was from OK Mart that provided some groceries.
So dire has been the situation at the pageant that the reigning Miss Curvy Sheila Chikengezha, 19, as well as first princess Chantelle Jeradi, 19, and second princess Chengetayi Mnisi, 20, were not given any prizes for coming out tops.
Encouraged by sponsorship she had been reportedly promised by some companies in the run-up to the Kariba event, Mushaninga’s struggling pageant hired equipment for the event and entertainers who included Pee Kay and DX Onesimo.
A well-placed source told the Daily News yesterday that the pending auction could be one of many more given the poor financial position of Zim Gossip Modelling Agency.
“Miss Curvy and, by extension, Zim Gossip are trapped in debt. The failure to secure sponsors has resulted in serious financial problems and I am not very optimistic about the future. This could be the beginning of the end,” she said.
The forthcoming auction of Miss Curvy’s property is among several that have hit the local entertainment industry in recent times.
Prominent promoter Josh Hozheri’s house in Harare’s Bluffhill surburb was put under the hammer by Ruby Actions on behalf of Central African Building Society to settle a reported $77 000 debt.-Daily News