Moremong: Pageantry’s Invisible Power Player

She never wore the crown but she built the stage. After years in the shadows, Kaone Moremong finally steps into the spotlight, proving pageantry is more power move than pretty parade At the recentMiss Botswanafinale, amid glitter, gowns, and gasps, one of the loudest wins came from the quietest corner. Kaone Moremong, long the engine behind the scenes was finally called to the front.

Just recognition. “The award was about recognition… my contribution towards the building and the growth of Miss Botswana,” she told Time Out, reflecting on nearly a decade of shaping a modern pageant machine under theDevelopment Advance Institute (DAI). “I was volunteering my services, time, and resources to make sure that Miss Botswana was where it is.

I took Miss Botswana like a giving back project to support young girls,” she said. In an industry often dismissed as surface-level, Moremong’s work tells a different story, one of infrastructure, mentorship, branding, and strategy. From producing shows to chaperoning queens and sharpening PR narratives, she helped transform the pageant into something aspirational, bankable, and culturally relevant.

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Her fingerprints are everywhere, even in the rise of queens likePalesa Molefe, who helped reposition the brand as serious business. “People believe that pageantry is just girls parading on a ramp,” she said. “But it supports so many industries.” And she’s not wrong.

Pageantry is fashion, media, tourism, production, PR—a full ecosystem disguised as glamour. In Botswana, it’s still catching up to its own potential. Moremong isn’t thinking small.

She’s thinking global runways stretching into international arenas, Botswana as host, not just participant. “We want to see big platforms like Miss Supranational, Miss Universe… being hosted in Botswana for an entire month.”

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