21 YEAR-OLD TIFFANY SIMELANE, MISS SWAZILAN 2008 COMMITED SUICIDE AND PASSED AWAY ON MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009

Tiffany Simeland: 1988 - August 17, 2009

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Tiffany Simelane (1988–August 17, 2009) was a beauty queen who represented Swaziland in Miss World 2008 in South Africa. Her reign began on July 26, 2008, and ended 22 days before she died. She complained to her friend that as soon as she won she was told she would have to pay all her expenses, including the cost of her dress, herself to travel to Miss World. This was a great sticking point between herself and the contest sponsors and organizers.[1] The organizers reported their own disappointments with Simelane, disclosing that she would "disappear without a trace", causing more controversy. In an interview with the Times of Swaziland she thanked God that her reign was over, stating she thought she was "going crazy" and that the title had been nothing more than a liability to her.[2] When she relinquished her crown at a ceremony in the Royal Swazi Convention Centre[3] she gave a cryptic speech, revealing that becoming Miss Swaziland had opened her eyes and that she had hoped to remove the cloud of controversy around the competition during her reign. She then claimed that the competition was not being run in the correct fashion, but that her conscience was clear.[4]

Her death came on August 17, 2009, after being rushed for treatment to the Mbabane Clinic, committing suicide on Monday evening by allegedly swallowing a weevil tablet, a pesticide that contains aluminium phosphide and emits phosphine gas. Friends are reporting that she killed herself over a "broken heart", facing depression and a lack of closeness with her family on top of the stress of being Miss Swaziland.

(Thank you and credits to http://en.wikipedia.org)

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Miss Swaziland 2008's tragic death
Beauty queen commited suicide

Like a comet blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon.

Miss Swaziland 2008 Tiffany Simelane was the fairest of them all in the beauty pageant world, but the same cannot be said about her reign. She endured many hardships, propelled by the fact that the national pageant was broke and could not meet all her needs to make her reign successful.

Simelane died on Monday afternoon after committing suicide.

The 21-year-old was crowned Miss Swaziland on July 26, 2008 at the Convention Centre. She was the crowd’s favourite as she answered judges’ questions on polygamy with confidence and intelligence. She was simply stunning and impressive and stood out from the rest of the other girls.

For that, she won herself the national beauty crown and a car prize, which was a Fordka on the night. Her crowning was historic because all the top three were Simelanes. Her First Princess was Nokwanda and her Second Princess was Vuyiswa.

She went on to represent the country in the Miss World finals, which were held in South Africa late last year, an experience which she described as her best in her reign. Unfortunately, Simelane did not win any prize in the contest, but her consolation was that she made friends for the country.

During her first interview, Simelane said she wanted to work closely with children during her reign. She also revealed that she was good at singing and that she meditated to calm her mind.

Simelane’s reign was controversial as she was reported by the Miss Swaziland committee that she had gone AWOL twice.

They also said she was not fulfilling her charity work as the country’s beauty ambassador.

In her last interview, she said all this was not true but she had deliberately avoided the committee because they expected her to be a money maker. She also said after her reign, she planned to study Business Management. Simelane also made headlines when she said she regretted ever joinging the national beauty pageant because of the problems it brought in her life.

She happily handed the national crown over to Nompilo Mncina on July 25 this year. In her last speech, she described her reign as "an eye opener".

"Let’s be honest, at the time of my crowning, this time last year, Miss Swaziland was engulfed by a cloud of controversy. I was aware of that and the heavy task ahead of me and I was prepared to work ever so hard to redeem the title and the pageant as a whole and lift this dark cloud from it," she said.

Tiffany Quoted


n "On my first meeting with Vinah, she said ‘sisi, Miss Swaziland was an eye opener’. ‘Aunty, I can tell you, my eyes were really opened’.

n "I regretted joining the contest in the first place because it has became a liability to me’.

n ‘Although I did not win anything from Miss World, I made a lot of friends, friends for Swaziland’.

n ‘My conscience is clear, I played my role as best as I could’.

(Thank you and credits to http://www.globalbeauties.com and all sources for the information and pictures)