The Miss South Africa pageant has had to change their way of doing things in order to adhere to the lockdown regulations.
They've asked entrants to post pictures or videos on their respective social media platforms. One of the entrants, who had been gaining a lot of popularity, faced social media backlash after offensive tweets dating back to 2013 came to light.
READ MORE: Miss SA hopeful Bianca Schoombee withdraws her entry after racist and crude tweets surface
Twitter users have been asking current Miss Universe, and former Miss SA, Zozibini Tunzi to run again this year. A lot of comparisons were made between current entrants and Zozi, with tweeps saying she has no skeletons in her closet.
However, Zozi took to Instagram to say that she's also made mistakes in the past. "I have actually had a lot on my mind. I think a lot of it comes from a conversation that has been happening around the country with regards to a particular Miss South Africa entrant whose tweets were recently dug up and brought to light," she said.
In the video, Miss Universe says she has noticed people have made her an example of someone with no faults who young women should look up. "When it hit me, I was taken aback. When I read those things I thought, surely I'm human and there must have been mistakes, you know, that I’ve made. I can’t really be as perfect as I’m made out to be."
Zozi goes on to say that this scared her because of the standard people have held her up to. This led her to look through her old Facebook and Twitter posts which date as far back as 2012.
"I saw a lot of things that I was proud of; a lot of things I had said about myself and about others. Things that ring true to who I am. And then saw other tweets that I'm not so proud of. I saw posts that I had shared on Facebook that were very insensitive. Posts that I should have never shared or posted. I was just so disappointed with myself. Just filled with shame that I thought it was okay to share that at that time.
"I want to take the time to apologise for those posts that I’ve shared, to apologise to anyone that is/was affected by those posts and just to say that those posts are in direct contrast to who I am and everything that I stand for," the former Miss South Africa said.
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She goes on to speak about how she has made her voice very clear during her reign, especially about the things she stands for. She assured everyone that her words of empowerment still ring true to who she is. "I felt it only right to come, make this video and face this head-on with you guys," she said, looking straight into the camera.
Towards the end of the video, Zozibini firmly states that we all need to start existing in a space where we make people uncomfortable for sharing inappropriate thoughts, for thinking it's okay to say them. This is in reference to crude and insensitive social-media posts that offend and dehumanise people.
"I hope that we can continue building that kind of world and just take responsibility as well for the things that we say and the things we do, and that we should be careful of the things we share even if we think it's an off-hand joke because some things just aren't funny," says the Eastern Cape-born role model.
It isn't quite clear which posts Zozi is speaking about as none of her old posts have resurfaced. Many South Africans have been deleting their old posts following the Miss SA entrant's saga. It is safe to say that Zozibini is still somebody many people can look up to and her humble apology is another reason why.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE:
