'We have been cheated' - Miss Tourism 2013

Kgomotso Molelekeng | Thursday December 5, 2013 17:48

 

Gaotsenelelwe won herself a cash prize worth P5,000, a clothing voucher for a whole year, a weekend trip to the Okavango Delta and a tour to one of the participating countries of her choice.

“I signed a contract specifying that my prizes will be handed to me on October 19, but I have not gotten them.  The organisers keep giving me excuses that do not make sense,” she said.

She also mentioned that the organisers took her per diem from her while in Equatorial Guinea where she was representing Botswana.

“We were each given $1,090 by the ministry there but the organisers decided to trick me and tell me that the sponsors made a mistake by addressing the money to me.  They said that they were the rightful owners of the money so they said my parents should give me money for the trip,” she said.

Gaotsenelelwe explained that her princesses also have not received their prizes while only other contestants received a goody bag that had testers in it.

“The day they handed the goody bag to the contestants, we were shocked to find perfume testers in it as opposed to the make up that we were promised,” she said.

She said when she asked the organisers why she had not yet received her prizes; they told her that they spent money they were not supposed to on Equatorial Guinea.  As a result she cannot receive her prizes, organisers told her.  When Showbiz contacted one of the organisers, Kgomotso Nyatshane, she said there are so many complicated issues to the story but failed to explain them.

“You can write whatever you have,” she told Showbiz.

Gaotsenelelwe and her first princess Evelyn Mashabe said they decided to visit all the sponsors who were said to have sponsored the event.  The ones they managed to reach revealed that they already gave out the prizes.

“We went to a pharmacy store and the manager told us that they gave out the perfumes for positions one, two and three, but funny enough they were never given to us,” she said.

Mashabe was supposed to take home P3,000 and spend a night at a hotel, while the second princess was to receive P1,500 and also spend a night at a hotel.