S’Africa speaks on Chidimma Adetshina’s eligibility to contest in beauty pageant

The South African ministry of home affairs has waded into the controversies trailing the eligibility of Chidimma Adetshina, the model of Nigerian heritage, to participate in this year’s beauty pageant.

The grand finale of this year’s Miss South Africa is scheduled for August 10, 2024, in Pretoria. The winner is expected to represent South Africa at this year’s Miss Universe pageant in Mexico.

Chidimma, 23, was born in Soweto, South Africa to a Nigerian father (Igbo) and a Mozambique mother (Zulu). Her parents were said to have met in Johannesburg in the late 90s before they eventually settled in Pimville.

The controversy surrounding her nationality rapidly gained traction on social media platforms earlier this month after she qualified for the round of 16.

Her participation in the pageant attracted harsh criticism, with some X users calling for her disqualification. They argued that the law student from South Africa’s Varsity College in Cape Town “is not South African enough” to compete in the pageant.

The backlash intensified after the country’s minister of sports, arts, and culture tweeted, “We truly can’t have Nigerians compete in our SA competition. I want to get all the facts before I comment, but it’s giving funny vibes already”.

While some users launched a discriminatory petition calling for her disqualification, others came to her defense.

But in an interview on The Clement Manyathela Show, Njabulo Nzuza, the deputy minister of South African home affairs, stressed that a person becomes a citizen “either by soil or by blood”.

The 42-year-old politician, however, emphasized that in the scenario where parents fraudulently obtained citizenship status, it is withdrawn from them and their offspring.

“When explaining this issue I will not go into names and specifics because we cannot come out and put the information of citizens out there that we take very seriously. The right to citizenship is by birth, by descent, or by naturalisation. Naturalisation is according to the contribution of the person to the country. This is very rare. A person becomes a citizen either by soil or by blood,” he said.

“By soil, we say because you are born into that country. In South Africa, you get citizenship by blood, which means one of your parents must be a South African, whether your father or mother. There are internal control systems like conducting blood tests.

“We have heard cases where people suspect someone that does not deserve citizenship, they do have the right to complain and we investigate. In some instances, you find out that it is not the actual person, it is the parent of that person who would have obtained citizenship in a wrong way. When we take away the citizenship which was erroneously issued or fraudulently obtained, then that child or descendant also loses his citizenship.”

Despite the outrage on social media, Nzuza said no one has visited the home affairs ministry to question Chidimma’s heritage.

“We have not received any specific request to do any verification. If we receive a formal process we will do that. We are not in the business of rumours. Through formal systems, those investigations will be conducted and action will be taken. We have a very strong law,” he added.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is the custodian, protector and verifier of the identity and status of citizens and other persons resident in South Africa.