Tanzania: Sitti Surrenders Miss Tanzania 2014 Crown

THIS year's Miss Redd's Tanzania declared winner, Sitti Mtemvu, has finally thrown in the towel and surrendered the title she was crowned on October 11, 2014 following a spirited saga about her age claims.

From day one of her reign the social media went viral, accusing her of having lied about her age.

Those who claimed to know her said her true age disqualified her from taking part in the pageant, whose minimum and maximum ages are 18 and 24, respectively.

Nor did Miss Mtemvu's statements help matters. On the day the pageant was held she said when introducing herself on stage that she was 18 years old. Since the event was being televised live, there is no question of people of ill will putting words in her mouth.

In fact, it is this claim of hers which kicked off her age debate. As the debate raged it came to light that the birth certificate she submitted to the pageant organisers to prove her qualification to take part in the contest was in fact issued by the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) on Sept 9, this year, just a few weeks before the contest was to be held, which showed that she was born on May 31, 1991.

When confronted by the media, Miss Mtemvu retorted that, being a frequent traveller, she had lost the original birth certificate. However, she circumspectly said she could not remember whether she reported the loss to any police station! And then irrefutable evidence started emerging.

The Immigration Department said without mincing words that Miss Mtemvu's photocopy of her birth certificate which she used to secure a Tanzanian passport showed that she was born on May 31, 1989 (which brings her age to 25 this year). And this is the year of birth which appears on her current passport.

Her driving licence issued in the US state of Texas also shows that she was born on May 31, 1989. It should be borne in mind that both the passport and the driving licence were issued on the strength of supporting documents supplied by the applicant herself - and both are consistent about her birth date: May 31, 1989.

One would have thought that, after this new evidence, the fate of Miss Mtemvu's reign would have been cast and hence subsequently dethrothed. But it wasn't the case.

To begin with, the director of Lino International Agency, organisers of the beauty pageant in Tanzania, Mr Hashim Lundenga, persistently challenged people to produce evidence proving that Miss Mtemvu was not indeed born on May 31, 1991, when in fact it was Lino which had the onus to investigate the whole matter because its integrity was on the chopping block.

Up to the end, Lundenga has stood by Miss Mtemvu because, instead of dethroning her, which was the right and logical decision to take, Lino has let her "voluntarily surrender the crown," thereby according her a semblance of respect which she does not deserve at all.

If there is any loser in this whole saga it must be Lundenga and his firm, Lino. But RITA has really shown the rot in our record keeping systems. That it could take almost a month to trace the birth records of a single individual in this computer age beats imagination!

One would have thought that an agency whose responsibility is to keep the birth and death records of the nation would have an elaborate and modern database to facilitate information retrieval. The Miss Mtemvu scandal should spur RITA and other public organisations to start putting their houses in order.

Now, what happens next following her resignation? This question is pertinent considering that both perjury and fraud may have been committed in this particular case. I stand to be corrected, but in order to secure the new birth certificate Miss Mtemvu most probably submitted to RITA an affidavit sworn before a commissioner of oaths.

In view of her passport and driving licence evidence, which she has not contradicted nor refuted, perjury comes into play here. Now, if the above is correct fraud logically follows.

If she knew that she didn't qualify to take part in the beauty pageant but still went ahead and concocted a birth certificate purporting to show that she did, that is fraud - pure and simple.