A Harare Polytechnic College student, who made headlines last week after images were leaked of her flashing her privates at adjudicators during a beauty pageant, appeared in court Monday.

A Zimbabwean college student who allegedly took part in a modelling contest without any underwear has appeared in court in the capital Harare, state media reported on Tuesday.

Panashe Zhaware, 21, is alleged to have walked the ramp in a full-length fuchsia pink dress with a revealing split all the way up the front. Photos surfaced this week of the Harare Polytechnic student at the event, which was apparently held at the end of last term in July.

The official Herald newspaper said that Zhaware “intentionally wore her evening gown without her undergarments”.

“It is the state’s case that the incident was captured on camera,” the Herald said.

The student has been charged with public indecency and was granted $100 bail at a court appearance on Monday.
She denied the allegations.

Local tabloid H-Metro said in a report at the weekend that the principal of the polytechnic, Tafadzwa Mundondo, and nine other models had also been taken in for questioning, as had the organisers of the pageant.

Mundondo said he was not involved in any way, according to H-Metro.

“That was a function in July and we have not been aware [of the indecent exposure]. It was a students’ function and we had nothing to do with it. They inform us of what they will be doing. This is one of the isolated cases that happened at the college,” he told the paper.

There were unconfirmed reports that the other nine models also wore no underwear after being told to take off their pants “to catwalk properly on the ramp”. There were also claims that photos of other students were deleted.

Zhaware has been told not to interfere with state witnesses and to stay at the address given to police, the Herald said