Harare — TONIGHT Zimbabwe finds its new lady ambassador. At the Harare International Conference Centre one of the 27 finalists will win the Miss Tourism Zimbabwe crown with a challenge prove their worth and show the nation that they are not brainless beauties.

Despite good educational qualifications of which the majority of the contestants are in university or college, the girls have been found shockingly wanting when it comes to knowing their country.

It is fact not fiction that Miss Tourism will be Zimbabwe's ambassador, defending the country and sending the right messages throughout the world.

Of late, there have been concerns over the quality of this year's contestants and their lack of general knowledge about Zimbabwe's history.

This weekend will provide the models with another chance to show that they are true ambassadors of Zimbabwe and that they have what it takes.

However, a mock quiz by Harare businessman Phillip Chiyangwa at a breakfast meeting held recently showed that the models fall far short of being Zimbabwe's ambassadors.

They gave wrong answers to simple questions like who was the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, who was Zimbabwe's first President and failed to name five comrades from Zanu-PF and five from PF-Zapu.

They also failed to name the comrades who accompanies President Mugabe to Mozambique at the beginning of the liberation struggle.

If the contestants cannot get these questions right one wonders what then they would say about or on Zimbabwe to the outside world.

According Chiyangwa, the contestants were impressive although some of them could not get the questions right.

"Basically, we have an assortment of people some who are brilliant and others not so brilliant. Some of the girls lack the knowledge of history but generally most of them are learned.

"I was also keen to know whether they know the who's who of Zimbabwe business because it is easy to do business when you know people, the right people," Chiyangwa said.

He, however, said he was impressed by the quality contestants saying they were all good ambassadors of the country. This was contrary to belief that this year's contestants were "brainless beauties".

"Not at all, they showed me that they have what it takes to market Zimbabwe and they were all versatile," he said.

The Miss Tourism Zimbabwe slated for the Harare International Conference Centre. Vanessa Sibanda, the reigning queen who did the country proud at the Miss World pageant held in South Africa last year, is expected to hand over the crown to the winner.