Beauty pageants are mostly associated with beauty and poise, but a Voice Clip of the Miss World SA’s vice president, Carolyn Botha, making racist remarks has rubbed Azapo deputy president, Kekeletso Khena, the wrong way.

Khena took to Twitter on Monday to share a voice clip in which a woman can be heard making racist remarks about shoppers at a mall.

“I told them to leave. And she wasn’t late, she was on time. She was there at 9am, an hour before she was supposed to be there, in a k****r infested mall. So, would you want to stand around there for four hours waiting for someone to maybe bring pads and tins,” a woman says in the 17-second voice clip.

Listen to the clip here:

According to Khena, the voice belongs to Carolyn Botha. Khena told The Citizen she heard the voice note for the first time on 15 July, after it was shared with her allegedly by someone close to Botha. She also noted that Botha denied it was her speaking on the voice clip when she messaged her, claiming that the voice clip was fake.

The Citizen reached out to Botha, who in an email stated that the matter is currently sub judice. “I did not state those words and am in the process of having the message authenticated,” she wrote in the email.

She also phoned the publication and when asked where the voice clip came from, Botha claimed that it was AI generated.

ALSO SEE: WATCH: Unathi gunning for Sizwe Dhlomo’s now-deleted tweets to build case against Kaya FM

Ugly face off

Khena says after hearing the voice note she sent Botha a message telling her that if she dislikes black people so much, she must leave the country, and that she will even help her pack.

Botha says she has received a number of death threats and other threats, including one from Khena, and that she has since opened a case against the Azapo deputy president at the Benoni Police Station.

“Both myself and Kekeletso Khena were at the Benoni Saps and neither of us recognised each other, so I fail to understand how she could have a case against me,” Botha wrote in her statement to The Citizen.

Khena confirmed that she was at the Benoni Police Station where she met Botha with three lawyers. She alleges that the lawyers told her that Botha was also opening a case against her.

However, according to Botha, the three other people present were her lawyer, and two other people from the police station who introduced the two to each other.

‘I have no beef with her’

Khena told The Citizen that she does not have a problem with Botha at all, apart from her racist behaviour.

“If you hate black people so much, you should not be profiting off them and that is exactly what is happening with the beauty pageants she is involved in,” Khena said.

She added that “Botha is racist and arrogant and should not be in a position of power”.

“One wonders what the outcome of this competition will be,” she said.

Botha claims that Khena is on a witch hunt because she [Botha] is involved in the beauty pageant. She did give reasons why she would be targeted for being involved with Miss World SA.

Botha made it very clear during the phone call that she and Khena have never met before, nor do they know each other through social media.

What is Miss World SA?

According to a report by Sunday World, the licence to host the Miss World SA was previously held by Sun International, custodians of the Miss South Africa pageant, but was granted to Carol Bouwer Productions (CBP) in May.

In June, Carol Bouwer, the owner of Carol Bouwer Productions announced that the Miss World SA pageant will be hosted in Soweto, at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, at the end of October.

During the two-day Soweto Investment Conference in June, Bouwer explained that Sun International, which runs the Miss South Africa pageant, used to send someone to Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss Supranational, and various other pageants, but that this process would no longer work like that.

ALSO SEE: No Miss Supranational title for SA, but Ayanda Thabethe named Miss Congeniality

“Now the Miss World office has given CBP the responsibility to send a rep to them. It means the person that wins Miss SA this year cannot go to the Miss World pageant,” Bouwer explained at the conference.

The international Miss World competition is taking place in December, in India, and the Miss World SA winner will represent South Africa in the global pageant.

*The Citizen has reached out to the Benoni SAPS to follow-up on both case numbers and will update the article as soon as the information becomes available.

NOW READ: Senzo Meyiwa trial: Zandile Khumalo’s ‘hairstyle vs hoodie’ moment [watch]