Dreams do come true: Ruth Thomas Attains her destiny

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Pako Lebanna

Location : Gaborone

Event : Miss Botswana 2025

On a night of glitz and glamour, the pomp and ceremony of Miss Botswana 2025 climaxed in a crowning moment for Ruth Thomas, the fulfilment of a childhood dream, fulfilment of a destiny for someone who had held on steadfast to their dream.

“I was very emotional, I remember I cried so much, it was moment of victory for me, a validation that dreams come true, all the hard work that I had put in when no one was looking had finally paid off,” Ruth tells Kutlwano.

A couple of weeks before the actual event, in early March, a video surfaced on social media of Ruth attending a church service in Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. 

“I am currently competing for Miss Botswana, and I want the crown,” she is heard saying in the video, to which the pastor responds “you have already framed a picture of you with the crown, and every day you pray that this is how they will celebrate you.”

Ruth confirms that indeed Miss Botswana for her has been a walk of faith for her; her fundamental Christian belief fuelled her dream and she now “wears the crown the way that I envisioned it.”

It was something she had purposed to achieve, she stresses.

“One part of my life that I have always been vocal about has been to manifest what I want before I actually get there, imagine it, thinking it and believing that I have what it takes, that fuels in me the belief that I can actually it can happen. I believe in the power of the mind, that small little vision, I can see myself as this, I can do it, then work hard for it in the physical,” Ruth says.

The 23 year old who hails from Masunga was raised in Francistown mostly by her grandparents, later at the age of 14 joining her father and siblings in Selebi Phikwe, where she completed her formal studies.

Ruth completed clothes and textile certificate studies at the Humana People to People institutions under the Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) and worked as a beauty adviser at retailers Clicks and Foschini and Clicks.

“The only pageant that I had done before and was successful in was Miss Top Model Botswana 2023, which was more on the modelling part of things,” she revealed.

She says she’d always wanted to participate in the Miss Botswana contest, and upon hearing of the auditions, she enlisted for them in Selebi Phikwe in order to get the moral support of her parents there. Thereafter she was part of those chosen, down to the top 30 and later top 20 and top 10 of the national competition.

“The competition was good and healthy. The women were very competitive, and they had been in the pageant space for a long time, longer than I, they were a step ahead, I had to learn things along the way, identify my mistakes and correct them. It was quite challenging but fun,” Ruth says.

On the night, all the weight of what she’d always dreamed of must have brought pressure to bear on her.

“Obviously you get nervous, the nerves don’t come because you are afraid, but because you love this thing, you don’t want to let yourself down, you don’t want all the hard work you have been putting in for months come to waste in one night. Other than that I had to tell myself, I needed to muster the courage to make this a success, and I think I did,” Ruth says.

Over the years, the concept of beauty has evolved from a period where lighter skinned women, such as Miss Botswana 2010 and Miss World 2010 Runner up Emma Wareus were the standard and darker tone, natural look of the likes of Kaone Kario were in the periphery much that a separate “Face of Africa” had to be organised to recognise their look.

The likes of South Africa’s Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi and Miss Botswana 2021 Palesa Molefe brought the natural African look into the mainstream, and Ruth says she is comfortable in her own melanin Kalanga skin tone.

“I have accepted myself the way that I look; that has been a major change maker in my life, accepting who I am that has been my greatest weapon. I come from a very humble home, at first I probably struggled with others coming from more privileged homes, but I have always been comfortable in my skin,” Ruth relates.

She is inspired about how people from different parts of Africa such as Somalia wear traditional attire on a daily basis, but Batswana wear theirs only on special occasions.

“When people come here they are intrigued, interested in our traditional wear, and we need to promote it more. We should find a way to modernise the style and incorporate it into our traditional attire so we could get that spice that is missing; make it more attractive to young people, to promote culture and keep it ongoing and alive,” she says.

For now, Ruth will spend the year on her Miss Botswana obligations, working along with the community and nation, now that she has fulfilled a dream she has clung to for long to the point of seeing it manifest.

“I’m grateful to my mother, grandmother and others around me for their support over the years. From a young age I’ve always been a child of prophecy. 

So much greatness has been spoken over my life since childhood, and my family embraced that because they knew what was coming,” she said. ENDS