MODELLING guru Sipho Mazibuko has bowed out of the industry, which she served for close to three decades.
Mazibuko, the founder of Strides Modelling Agency, announced her exit from the industry at the Legends Awards ceremony held last week in Bulawayo.
Famed for birthing Miss Rural Zimbabwe in 2003 and grooming a number of top models in the country, Mazibuko carved a niche for herself in the industry which also saw her founding pageants such as Miss Highlanders, Miss Bulawayo and Miss Teen-Queen.
“It’s time for me to pass on the baton,” she told Standard Style in an exclusive interview.
“When you get a legend award then you know you have done everything.
“We were considered top modelling personas in Zimbabwe post-independence after I had started competing in beauty contests after graduating.
“The first one I bagged was at Evelyn High School and then I entered 13 others and in all of them I emerged as queen.
“When I became Miss Teen Queen I got a lot of media attention and big companies like Meikles would hire me as a model for their fashion shows.
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“This is around the same time I became Miss Bulawayo.”
Mazibuko said all this happened during the height of HIV.
“People and my peers would laugh at me and tease me a lot on why I was dating a young boy from Makokoba while I was Miss Bulawayo,” she said.
“Mr Ndabezinhle Mazibuko is now a prominent lawyer by the way and all those sugar daddies and some of the people who moved with them are together at West Park Cemetery today.
“I was faced with many challenges being raised by a single mother and I didn’t want to be a single mother as well and sugar daddies only want to have fun.”
She explained how her agency grew to become what it is today.
“I opened Strides Modelling Agency and it soon became the agency of choice because I was securing them jobs for nearly all models,” Mazibuko said.
“The agency attracted top companies like Edgars, Truworths and Delta to mention just a few.
“I did Miss Summer Strides which produced stars such as Lorrain Maphala and Busi Dube, among others.
“Then an idea from God and my ancestors came, Miss Tourism Rural which was inspired by my rural background.”
She said the Miss Rural pageant became popular in the country, but was at some stage marred by controversy.
“Miss Rural became controversial because people were curious why I would hold a contest for rural girls, but they deserved equal opportunities with urban girls,” Mazibuko said.
“Nobody has done something tangible to expose the rural diamonds since I stopped running the pageant.
“I got distracted by political forces, who were bigger than me and I even went to remand prison in Harare.
“If you remember then there were no private media and therefore I had no space to say my side of the story, I was bashed left right and centre.
“I was accused of pimping out the girls when myself I went through abuse.
“Some of these things still haunt me because most journalists after writing a very beautiful story they would include that at the end of the story yet it was never proven correct.”
She said the defamation has haunted her for the better part of her life.
The veteran instructor said she was rebranding ahead of 2024, diversifying to do other better things.
“I want to concentrate on the mental voices and this will give me a platform to engage with people who have mental issues,” she said.
“I remember what the media did to me when I was admitted at Ingutsheni Hospital in 2013.
“It was like I was the first woman to be treated there, the stigmatisation was scary and I was put on front pages of every newspaper.
“It was newsworthy because it was Sipho Mazibuko, so I want to educate the rural people on mental health awareness.”
“I went through a lot to such an extent that I attempted suicide twice, but God saved me because it was not my time.”
Mazibuko said her intention was to sell the license for Miss Rural across the continent.
“Miss Rural Africa will be held on the banks of the Zambezi River at the Elephant Hills Golf course and local agencies shouldn’t be spending money on other people’s projects,” she said.
“They should create their own and sell to other countries so that we boost Zimbabwean tourism like I did when I turned Kariba into a destination for entertainment and filled up hotels, lodges and guest houses.”
“Of course international pageants are good, but let us support Zimbabwe too.”
Mazibuko claims she was part of the team that advocated for the return of the Miss Zimbabwe pageant after it had been banned for 10 years by the then Women Affairs minister Joyce Mujuru.
Among other modelling industry icons whom she counts as her mates are Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda and Rick Nathanson who alongside her were groomed by the late Bridget Kruger.
