Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
This gorgeous Miss South Africa contestant has revealed that she was abandoned in a box as a baby and urged those down on their luck to “keep fighting, keep loving, keep giving” in a spirited message of hope.
Fikile Cele, 22, from the city of Durban in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, said she was raised by an Indian woman who found her in a box outside a factory.
Fikile told Newsflash: “It may come as a surprise to many that I don’t speak isiZulu and neither do I understand my mother tongue. My mother was 15 or 16 when she fell pregnant with me and ran away from her home in Johannesburg to Durban because she was afraid of her family at the time. I was born at the R K Khan Hospital on 5th April 1999.
“I was sadly abandoned in a box outside a factory in Chatsworth. The only thing left with me in the box was my birth certificate, hence the name Fikile Cele, and the only known thing of my identity.
“I was found by my adoptive mum who is an Indian woman and was then adopted as a two-month-old baby.
“My biological mother soon came looking for me and was given visitation rights through my adoptive mum for a while.
“I don’t remember my biological mother well as she passed away when I was just five years old.
“The only memory I have of my biological mother is a brown coffin and a green mat over it descending into her grave.
“I have overcome many struggles in my life, with some being that I was told I ‘don’t belong here’ and with the many illnesses I went through as a young child.”
She added: “I learned that with God, nothing is impossible.
“When you trust that where you are going is nothing compared to where you are currently, everything works out for your highest good.”
Fikile told Newsflash: “I am here to tell you that it is okay to be different, okay to be you, and that I am worth it and so are you!
“I have a story and an experience I want to share with you, that if you have nothing and if you come from difficult circumstances, it is completely okay. Life has a way of changing and getting better as it is always evolving in unimaginable ways.
“Keep fighting, keep loving, keep giving, and I promise you it will all be worth it one day. I am living testimony of that.”
The model said: “Never apologise for who you are. I believe that as the next Miss South Africa 2021, I can use my power, my self-confidence and greatness to advocate for every woman who has felt broken, unseen or unheard, limited or abandoned, by whatever circumstances they have encountered in life.
“I am here to be the ripple effect of change and a beacon of hope for everyone in my community and for young girls like me.”
