Welcome back home beauty

Rolene Strauss received a high spirited welcome in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s Rolene Strauss who bagged the Miss World 2014 title was welcomed at home with cheers and facilitations. Strauss is the country’s first Miss World in 40 years, reported dailysabah.com.

Hundreds of fans turned up at O.R. Tambo International Airport to receive the 22-year-old medical student. Dressed in the country’s national colours, South Africans waved placards, flags and portraits of Strauss at a colorful ceremony staged at the airport in Johannesburg. “Welcome back home beauty Rolene Strauss: Congratulations,” read some of the placards.

Among those at the airport was the country’s first winner of the title in 1958, Penny Coelen-Rey, now a 74-year-old grandmother. “We can be truly proud that she has brought the title back to South Africa,” she said.

Leading the welcome party, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula brought back the memory of the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela, who died a year ago. “We are a proud nation today,” said Mbalula. “Nelson Mandela is smiling on us, that his idea of a free democratic South Africa, a united nation, a rainbow nation is still alive today,” reported saudigazette.com.

Strauss who also received a bouquet of flowers from a girl on a wheelchair, stepped into the airport’s arrivals hall to deafening cheers and chants. “I have no words to describe what I am feeling at this moment,” she said, adding that taking part in the Miss World 2014 contest made her realise how “powerful” South Africa is. “The words South Africa mean unity, freedom, forgiveness, a bright future,” she said.

The famous Soweto Gospel Choir, which featured at the FIFA World Cup in December 2009, led the performance to welcome Strauss.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2014.

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