Chidimma Adetshina, a beauty queen and recent winner of Miss Universe Nigeria, is set to lose her South African identity and travel documents amid a nationality dispute involving her mother’s alleged “identity theft”.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs announced the decision to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday after Adetshina and her mother missed a deadline to justify their citizenship status.

Tommy Makhode, the most senior official at the department, said Adetshine’s mother would also have her documents written off because they had both failed to meet Monday’s deadline to provide reasons why they would be eligible to keep them.

The controversy first arose when Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian and mother Mozambican, reached the final of the Miss South Africa pageant, sparking xenophobic criticism and prompting her to withdraw in August.

According to Home Affairs, the investigation into Adetshina’s background, which began after she entered the Miss South Africa pageant, pointed to her mother’s potential identity fraud. Following the revelations, South Africa’s special investigative police unit, the Hawks, classified the case as a fraud, with a decision from prosecutors pending.

After the department’s disclosure in August, it had said Adestshina “could not have participated in her mother’s alleged illegal acts because she was an infant at the time”.

Despite the turmoil, Adetshina, a law student born in Soweto, expressed pride in both her South African and Nigerian heritage, saying she still saw herself as “proudly South African” and “proudly Nigerian”. Currently in Mexico, she is preparing to represent Nigeria in the upcoming Miss Universe pageant on November 16, where she will compete against global contestants, including Mia le Roux, Miss South Africa 2024.

Melissa Enoch

Follow us on: