Former Miss South Africa finalist and Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 Chidimma Adetshina has pulled out all the stops to remain in South Africa.
The 25-year-old beauty queen, who is fighting deportation in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, is challenging Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber’s decision to strip her and her minor son of their South African citizenship.
Authorities arrested Adetshina at her Summer Greens home on June 9 after she quietly returned to South Africa following the controversy that culminated in her being crowned Miss Universe Nigeria.
In a 38-page affidavit filed in the Western Cape High Court this month, Adetshina says she and her son have been turned into “illegal foreigners” in the country where they were born.
“But it is from 2024; as a result of an anti-Nigerian social media outcry, [Home Affairs] have systematically stripped us of every status we held in this country.
“Today, not only are we de facto illegal foreigners, but we have even been prohibited under section 29(1)(c) of the Immigration Act; that is, banned from even holding a visa or permit under the Immigration Act again,” the affidavit reads.
“[The minister and the department] have effectively closed the doors on South Africa to us.”
Adetshina is asking the high court to review and set aside the minister’s decision to withdraw her and her son’s citizenship.
She alleges the department’s concerns centre on the way her mother, Anabela Carlos Rungo, acquired South African citizenship. Rungo is facing immigration-related charges in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
“Whilst the decisions concerning my mother fall to be decided in different proceedings, I am advised (I was not even born yet) that any fault for such errors lies not with her but with the department. But even if my mother obtained her citizenship irregularly, that does not justify the [minister and department’s] conduct.”
Adetshina insists that neither she nor her three-year-old son committed any wrongdoing.
“The decision by the department is unfair, unreasonable and indeed irrational.
“They have repeatedly denied me any hearing or reasonable opportunity to make representations on their key decisions, failed to provide decisions or reasons, and have unlawfully delayed making decisions which would confirm any South African citizenship.”
The affidavit traces Adetshina’s upbringing in South Africa. She says she was born in Johannesburg on January 8, 2001.
“My mother was born in Mozambique but moved to South Africa as a child in or around 1992 with her parents. Since then – for over three decades – South Africa has been her permanent home. She attended school here, started her family and contributed to society.”
She says her father, Michael Adetshina, is a dual Nigerian-South African citizen.
“I attended school here (Goodwood Park Primary and then Bosmansdam High School, 2018); I played sports (including representing the Western Province in netball).”
She says she also retained Nigerian citizenship through her father but that her South African status was never questioned until she entered the Miss South Africa competition in 2024.
“The online misinformation and xenophobic commentary began to amplify after my family and I proudly displayed on social media pictures of us in which both South African and Nigerian flags were visible.”
Home Affairs began investigating Rungo’s citizenship in August 2024, prompting Adetshina to withdraw from the Miss South Africa pageant.
She says she later accepted an invitation to compete in Miss Universe Nigeria.
“I eventually won Miss Universe Nigeria.”
Adetshina alleges that while she was abroad, Home Affairs informed her that her South African identity had been withdrawn. She says the minister dismissed her internal appeal on April 21.
The affidavit also details her arrest on June 9.
Adetshina says members of the Home Affairs Immigration Inspectorate, carrying an “entry and search warrant”, climbed over the walls of her property before searching her home.
She says officials instructed her and her son to accompany them to a police station. They later appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Adetshina denies allegations that she submitted a fraudulent bank statement to Home Affairs.
Home Affairs had not responded to requests for comment by the end of the week and had not filed opposing papers.
The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court is expected to deliver its ruling in the immigration matter next month.
- Former Miss South Africa finalist and Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 Chidimma Adetshina has pulled out all the stops to remain in South Africa.
- The 25-year-old beauty queen, who is fighting deportation in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, is challenging Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber’s decision to strip her and her minor son of their South African citizenship.
- Authorities arrested Adetshina at her Summer Greens home on June 9 after she quietly returned to South Africa following the controversy that culminated in her being crowned Miss Universe Nigeria.
- In a 38-page affidavit filed in the Western Cape High Court this month, Adetshina says she and her son have been turned into “illegal foreigners” in the country where they were born.
- “But it is from 2024; as a result of an anti-Nigerian social media outcry, [Home Affairs] have systematically stripped us of every status we held in this country.
