Locked Down In New York

South Africa’s Zozi Tunzi tells YOU how she’s risen to the challenge of being Miss Universe during the pandemic

- Cyril Blackburn

For weeks the phrase ran in a loop in her mind: what now?

Holed up in her Manhattan apartment, Zozibini Tunzi was flooded with sadness and feelings of impending doom.

It was late March in New York and the “city that never sleeps” was shrouded in a silent blanket of snow. The once-teeming streets were eerily empty, resembling something from a post-apocalyptic movie as New Yorkers hunkered down in their homes.

Zozi had been crowned Miss Universe just three months before and the world was supposed to be her oyster. But in the blink of an eye, all the dreams that had come true hung in the balance, in danger of being destroyed by a virus that had all but brought the globe to a halt.

“I didn’t immediately realise what the full impact would be on my reign,” the 26-year-old beauty tells YOU via video call from the Big Apple.

“But then suddenly, like a shot of iced water in the face, it hit me: all my plans for the year had been scrapped.”

Travelling the world, glamorous ad campaigns, glitzy fundraisers and busy media tours – everything had been wiped off the board.

“Like millions of people, I went into isolation – more than 12 000km from my loved ones,” she says.

“It was terribly hard. In the days and weeks before, I’d been constantly on the go and then suddenly everything came to a screeching halt.

“I couldn’t help but wish things could’ve been different. I even once, at a very low point, wished I’d been born in a different year.”

But she’s not one to stay down for long, not after working so hard for so many years to realise her dreams.