DUT student still hopeful
Nosipho Mhlongo is a 21 year old DUT student. Mhlongo is now at her second year at DUT and she is studying Public Management. In 2019, Mhlongo entered a competition hosted by GCI.
Mhlongo entered the modelling segment, which was a competition, that was a part of a whole host of events that were hosted by GCI.
They were told as part of the competition that was hosted by GCI to take pictures. They were instructed to take pictures and post them on social media. Whoever got the most likes on social media for their pictures, would move on to the next stage of the competition.
The entrants were told that those with the most likes on social media would make it to the stage. This is where they could be seen and physically model.
People could react to the entrants pictures and interact with their posts. The entrants who were in the top 10 for the most likes on their pictures could make it to the next stage of the competition.
Mhlongo found herself as one of the entrants with one of the top 10 most liked pictures in the competition and progressed to the next stage of the competition. On the day that the next stage of the competition was supposed to begin there was a disruption. The stage had been set up and everything to begin the modelling extravaganza and then members of the EFF came and disturbed the whole thing. The day had collided with a time when the EFF had been involved in organising a lot of strikes. The modelling competition was cancelled on that day. The modelling competition was always being postponed following that incident. The modelling competition was postponed to a point where it ended up not happening. It is unfortunate that the modelling competition ended up not happening.
The strikes that were taking place at DUT and being spearheaded by the EFF were unfortunate. We will never know what the end result of that competition would have been.
Today, Mhlongo continues to live her life as a regular DUT student and goes about her life normally. It seems Mhlongo did not just enter the GCI modelling competition as a matter of entering but she actually has a profound interest in modelling. When asked what she knows about modelling, Mhongo says, "The secret to modelling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second."
Mhlongo’s life did not end when the competition did not happen. She was excited at the prospect of taking part but she is not completely disappointed. Mhlongo is always more than happy to share about this experience that she was looking forward to but never happened.
