Like a royal queen, Palesa, who has been arguably the most popular Miss Botswana queen of recent years, will do her final royal wave.
The royal wave is a vertical hand with a slight twist from the wrist, a classy affair that oozes modesty and royalty. The wave was invented by King George V and adopted and made famous by the British royal family, some sources say.
It was a rather dramatic two years. If it wasn’t her sexuality being questioned, it was her dramatic ‘dress malfunction’, her general wardrobe or that she missed a flight leaving government officials stuck at the airport waiting for her whilst she had switched off her phone and gone AWOL. Her reign has been interesting. Despite the fair share of criticism, Palesa made her mark during her reign.
Therefore, it was by no surprise that her photographs were chosen the most viewed for the year during the Miss World stage. As she takes her final bow and does the final royal wave, the 23-year-old shared her journey with Arts & Culture.
On the eve of the crowning she has mixed emotions. “There is a pool of emotions but the one prevalent that I will say I feel right now is gratitude. I have an understanding that gratitude is a great catalyst of great fortune and so for my time entering Miss Botswana Top 30, Top 16 and top 5 then finally being bestowed the honour of being Miss Botswana, I have always been so grateful.” Palesa says she has felt Botswana’s love. “Botswana and Batswana have given me gifts that I will never forget and that has been love and support,” she said.
She also said it has been a struggle to adjust to being in the public eye. “My journey has been very public. I will admit that is the one thing I have really had to adjust to. For the past year, my life has been public and I am a very private person and the things that were happening, it would be public information that took quite a bit of adjusting,” she added.
However, she was always assured of the love she received from Batswana, which really touched her heart. She said she learnt that people actively vouched for her.
"You know these are people I don’t know; people whose faces I have never seen but it’s been such a movement, which goes back to why I am so grateful because sometimes I just step back and look in awe of what is happening because I can’t believe it.” Getting back to her old life, Palesa said she will now give more time to her acting career as it was also not easy taking time away from it. She said being a queen, she wasn’t able to take time off to shoot a series or a film “so I had to put my craft aside a little a bit to fulfill my duties as Miss Botswana.” She said she is going to jump back into it when she hands over the crown. Palesa’s advice for the next queen is to simply dance.
“For the incoming queen honestly I would just say girl, dance to the rhythm of your own drum. It is so important to use this chance to explore and discover who you are as an individual.
This journey will only be true to you if you are true to the journey itself and I think one important thing is when you are going into a journey that thrust you into the spotlight, surround yourself with a good tribe of people who have good intentions. It is so important to have that so that they can help you stay grounded, and help you navigate through the journey.
You don’t have to tell anyone why you started; you understand why you started, the reasons why you want to be Miss Botswana, keep that in your heart so that as you go through the journey; you will know the directions to go; you will know how to move and carry yourself.” So what is next for the queen? “I have exciting news actually.
I have registered my own foundation. Through Miss Botswana I have realised my love for charity, my love for community and my love for giving back and so I have a foundation called Palesa Olorato Molefhe foundation.
The key focus of my foundation is education on mental health, culture and arts. I am very excited to see what we can do with this. I am excited to connect and collaborate with key stakeholders and see how we can bring this to life and do it in a beautiful way and bring light to social causes.”
