South African Home Affairs Investigates Miss SA Finalist’s Mother for Alleged Identity Fraud

Evidence that suggests Chidimma Adetshina’s mother may have committed identity fraud 23 years ago when Chidimma was a baby has been found by the South African Department of Home Affairs.

The inquiry was started in response to a request for Adetshina’s citizenship verification from the Miss SA organizers.

According to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, there is preliminary evidence from the inquiry suggesting that Chidimma’s mother could have used someone else’s identity to register Chidimma.

The genuine mother encountered difficulties as a result of this purported fraud, as identity theft prevented her from registering her own kid.

In an effort to find and apprehend any officials participating in the purportedly fraudulent scheme, the Department has expanded the scope of its inquiry. After the inquiry is over, Home Affairs plans to charge everyone involved with a crime.

Born in Soweto, South Africa, Chidimma Adetshina, a finalist in the 2024 Miss South Africa pageant, was the daughter of a Nigerian father and a Mozambican mother.

Her ability to compete in the pageant has come under scrutiny as a result of the probe.

The episode has brought attention to how urgently Home Affairs’ procedures need to be digitally modernized in order to stop future occurrences of this kind of thing.

It has also drawn attention to the fact that the department has been banning some duplicate IDs and that care must be taken while managing the court-mandated unblocking of these records.