Female student arrested for modeling without panties

A Harare Polytechnic College student, who made headlines last week for flashing her privates at adjudicators during a beauty pageant, appeared in court Monday, reports New Zimbabwe.

21-year-old Panashe Zhaware contested for the Miss Harare Polytechnic crown at a modeling fete held on July 2015.

The beauty contest proceeded without issue, but when it was Zhaware’s turn to hit the runway things took a turn for the bizarre.

The daring student, who had gone on stage without her panties, decided to take things further by flashing her private parts for all to see.

Addressing the court, the prosecutor told: “the model held her dress and stretched it wide open exposing her genitals to everyone in the room.”

Photos of the model exposing herself were leaked to a Harare tabloid, H-Metro, leading to investigations by the police.

The 21-year-old was subsequently arrested and charged with public indecency in court.

She was remanded to October 21 for trial and released on Sh10, 300 ($100) bail.

Zhaware, who is represented by Harare lawyer Musindo Hungwe, was not asked to plead when she appeared before the magistrate.

The college Principal Tafadzwa Mudondo was also picked up by the police from the licensing Inspectorate Department together with nine other models and the pageant organising crew.

Others are likely to be charged for contravening certain sections of Zimbabwe’s Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act.

The principal said the administration was not aware of the lewd July incident, adding that he had not seen the said photos.

In his defense, the principal said that the pageant was a students’ function and the administration had nothing to do it with it.

“That was a function in July and we have not been aware (of the indecent exposure). It was a students’ function and we had nothing to do with it. They inform us of what they will be doing. This is one of the isolated cases that happened at the college,” he said.

Mudondo said they have not taken any action since they are still in the process of investigating the matter.

The photographers of the event were also picked for questioning together with their cameras and external hard drives which carried the images from the event.

Sources told H-Metro that it was Panashe’s decision to take to the stage without her knickers and that she left many surprised by exposing her privates to the gathering.

Other models distanced themselves from the controversial incident. According to sources, more photographers reportedly had the photos but they went on to delete them.

The leaked photos made it online through some students who already accessed the images.