The Miss Africa Continent pageant turned out into a disaster after organisers failed to meet the requirements for staging the show last week.

Contestants from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Liberia and Cameroon went back home empty-handed after the event was cancelled just 30 minutes before it started.

The pageant was initially set to be hosted in Mozambique but had to be moved to South Africa following the damage caused by floods in the country.

Initially, 22 countries had registered for the pageant but only six managed to avail their queens for the show in Mzansi.

The beauty queens were greeted by an empty and dark Sky Rink Studios in the Joburg CBD last week Saturday.

Event director Neo Mashishi tried to blame the flop on the venue, but owners of Sky Rink Studios blew his claims out of the water.

Sky Rink Studios executive director Frank Mohapi blamed the event's director Mashishi for the failure of the continental event.

According to Mohapi, the event failed because Mashishi failed to apply for a joint operations committee certificate from the City of Joburg, which would have ensured that the event of its magnitude was safe.

The city confirmed that it never received a safety check certificate application for Miss Africa Continent event.

Mashishi finally took responsibility for the pageant's failure, saying that he failed to attend important meetings with the venue.

"Following the meeting convened with Sky Rink directors on 29 May 2019, I would like to put things into perspective that there was a misunderstanding from my side regarding Sky Rink and Miss Africa partnership that led to the entire disaster of the event .

"Weekly meetings were suggested to ensure progress on the project, instead only e-mail correspondence were utilised as a means of communication due to limited time on organising the event," he said.