‘Your brain shapes you‚ not your body‚’ Shabangu tells girl child guests

Miss SA Ntandoyenkosi Kunene may be beautiful‚ but her stunning smile and flawless figure are meaningless without intellect.

This was the message Minister for Women in the Presidency Susan Shabangu gave to the 60 Gauteng schoolgirls she hosted at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Thursday.

“It’s your brain that shapes you‚ not your body‚” the minister said.

“Miss SA can be beautiful but if there’s nothing here (pointing to her head) when she opens her mouth everyone would be disappointed.”

Shabangu was hosting a “Take a girl child to work day” event‚ celebrating the 60th anniversary of the historic women’s march on the Union Buildings which saw 20000 hand a petition to Prime Minister JG Strijdom in 1956‚ demanding an end the apartheid pass laws.

Shabangu encouraged the girls to dream big‚ work hard and not get side-tracked by distractions.

“Say to yourself‚ ‘I’m not going to have a baby before I finish my education and start fending for myself.’

“You don’t want to child grants after being deceived by a boy who tells you you’re beautiful‚” she said.

Instead‚ Shabangu said‚ young women should focus on dreaming big and breaking their own records.

“Don’t make records and sit back‚ break them‚” she said.

Kunene‚ who posed for selfies with some of the girls before Shabangu’s speech‚ will also have lunch with them and share her journey to becoming Miss SA.

Former Miss SA Suzette van Der Merwe‚ now head of the Cell C Foundation‚ also attended the event and spoke to the girls of the challenges of being a beautiful woman in the corporate world.

The girls then shared some ideas of their own with each other‚ with some reading poems to the gathering. – Tiso Black Star Group Digital