“A Tour De Force”… “A Gracious Queen”… “A person who strives for excellence”.
These are but a few of the good wishes on social media from the following and fans of the newly crowned Miss DRAG South Africa 2019!
She who believes that “It is better to die for a purpose than to live for nothing”. She takes the crown. She is Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie from the Western Cape!
At a prestigious event, held at The South African State Theatre in Pretoria, Gauteng on Friday 04 October 2019, saw 9 finalists across the country vie for the most prestigious crown on African soil in DRAG culture – Miss DRAG South Africa.
The top 5 was selected, among them Ka-Fassie, together with Chante Herries (Parkwood, Western Cape), Laylah Zokufa-Khan (Boland, Western Cape), Kem Blank (Welkom, Free State) and Emogen Moore (Mitchell’s Plain, Western Cape).
Each had to draw a judges name for the final top 5 questions – Belinda’s question: is to “Across the world we still experience our community and that of the LGBTQIA+ community as illegal, and punishable by death.
What would your advice be to a fellow brother or sister, asking you for advice, who cannot live their own truth?” asked by the renowned attorney, Coenie Kukkuk from Coenie Kukkuk Attorneys (An international judge with 20 years’ experience), saw the crowd gasping! What stood out most of Ka-Fassie comprehensive answer in her true well-spoken manner: “Each and every country have their own set of struggles. We live in a time where people judge people for who they are. My advice would be “BE YOURSELF IN THOSE SMALL SAFE SPACES, where you can be yourself. But, also the importance of it, keep on challenging the normative, keep on challenging the systems, cause only when we challenge the systems that it augment the power who we are”. She concluded her answer by saying “It is better to die for a purpose than to live for nothing”.
In an interesting twist this year, Miss DRAG SA 2019 followed suit of Miss Universe, where a top 3 was chosen, yet not crowned as yet, with a final question to the top 3: “Why should you win Miss DRAG SA 2019?” Ka- Fassie’s answer of resilience, consistency and hard work, had the judges and the crowd eating from her hands – and she took the crown!
She’s already a public favourite and has received well wishes and praise from across the country.
Enigma Von Hamburg, pageant director, owner and founder of Miss Drag South-Africa, added that “Belinda is indeed the right person for the job. We look forward and is extremely excited for the year ahead and her future as Miss Drag SA 2019. Her contribution to our projects about Drag With A Purpose, and her commitment to make a positive change in our communities are extremely inspiring and well received. She is going to make a huge difference this year!”
Ka-Fassie walks away with a prize package over R100 000!
That includes a cash prize of R30,000.00, a one week all expenses paid holiday, to Hong Kong, sponsored by our former Queen Zilin Ayoki Zhang, a designer dress, travelling allowance, a substantial cash amount for her ‘Drag With A Purpose’ projects during her reign, make-up, a few other gifts, and vouchers. A big shout out to all our sponsors, and organizations that we collaborate with that made all of it possible. Special mentions to our main sponsors and supporters, Out LGTB Well-Being Org., The Market Photo Workshop and their students, Luiz De Barros, Roche Kester, Juan Martin, Revel Harris, Ricky Couture, MJ Esau Bespoke, Coenraad Kukkuk Attorney’s, Gayspeaks, Alternative Media and Mambaonline!
Miss DRAG South Africa 2020 is set to be held in the Kingdom of Kwazulu-Natal next year, with the host city: Durban!
“This is a traveling pageant. And South-Africa needs to see what we can do and how we can contribute to society in our way. We look forward to seeing what’s going to happen in Durban!” says Enigma.
For more information about the projects, causes, and pageant, or to become a partner in terms of sponsorship, please contact Enigma Von Hamburg on missdragsouthafrica@evhempire.co.za or the official media partner, Alternative Media: info@alternativemedia.co.za.