22 Aug 2018

Beauty with brains is what describes Lindie Motswaeng, a third year Bachelor of Science student at the University of Botswana majoring in Mathematics and Economics.

Born in Marobela 21 years ago, Motswaeng is scheduled to represent the University of Botswana at this year’s Miss University Africa billed for Lagos, Nigeria from November 15 to December 1. Miss University Africa will see young ladies from 54 African countries battle it out for the crown.

Despite the high level of competition against her, she remains unfazed and focuses on being chosen the fairest of all tertiary ladies across Africa and bring the crown home.

Motswaeng is not new to the world of beauty pageants and has an impressive record going into the competition.

She has previously won Miss Festive Marobela 2015, which was her first competition. Additionally, she has won Miss HQ Club 2017, Miss 360 Road Safety Expo 2018 and became the Miss University of Botswana 2017 first princess.

An avid pageant and fashion fanatic with numerous beauty pageant titles to her name, she explained in an interview that she came across a post on Facebook last year calling out for young ladies who wanted to audition.

“Any lady who is a student at a tertiary university in Africa could apply and I tried my luck. We were given a set of tasks to complete and I worked hard to make the selection,” she said.

 Having had a chance to do some bit of background check on her contenders, Motswaeng remains confident saying “I have seen all these beautiful ladies from other countries but I trust myself to win this for my university and country. I have a strong support system and I’m very much in love with what I do.

I believe that if there’s one thing that’ll help me through this competition is my desire to be the voice for the voiceless, which is pretty much what being a beauty queen is all about,” she confidently said.

For her to be the favourite to win Miss University Africa, she urged Batswana and the world to vote for her in large numbers. “To vote for me one has to log into social media and go to the Miss University Africa page on Facebook or Instagram and click a like, comment or share my picture.

Doing this will automatically help me move into the top ten where my chances of winning the crown for our country will be increased,” she noted.

Lately, she said, she had been busy mobilising through social media as well as media houses in the country for support. She also called for potential sponsor to link up with her.

 “I have no sponsors as yet but I am appealing to the private sector, individuals and even the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development to help me as this is a national cause,” she highlighted.  She also appealed for support of any kind.

Apart from competing against other young ladies for the crown, Motswaeng has been modelling for more than three years. “Modelling has lots of ups and downs but it has fulfilled me and I feel very happy doing it. If only I could win this years’ Miss University Africa for Botswana and Batswana, the better,” she concluded. ENDS