Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina, who is facing deportation from South Africa, has reiterated that she was born in the country and believes she has been “treated unfairly and targeted”. South African officials want her detained as they pursue her deportation after she was declared a prohibited person in 2024.
Adetshina, 25, whose mother has Mozambican roots and her father is Nigerian, was stripped of her identity documents after questions around her citizenship were raised when she took part in the 2024 Miss South Africa contest. She then left the country.
She was arrested in June this year – and later released on warning – after being accused of re-entering South Africa unlawfully.
On Wednesday, the government’s legal case seeking her detention was postponed until next year.
Speaking after a hearing in Cape Town, Adetshina said “there has been an attempt” by the South African authorities to make an example of her with this case.
“I remind everyone that I was born in South Africa. I have applied through the proper legal channels to have my status and citizenship determined,” she said.
The pageant contestant added that “we should not allow xenophobia and misinformation to determine how people are going to be treated”, seemingly a shot to protesters who had gathered outside the court calling for her deportation.
The protest was led by anti-migrant group March and March, which has been at the forefront of calls for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa, and many chased after her car as she left the courthouse.
Adetshina, a law student at the time, left South Africa in 2024 and went on to win Miss Universe Nigeria after she was invited to participate by the organisers. In court, South Africa’s home affairs department argued that she applied for a South African visa while she was in Nigeria and Nigerian passports for her and her son therefore implying that she was not a South African citizen, according to reports in the News24 site.
Officials then said she returned to South Africa illegally via a Mozambican border post.
Adetshina has previously argued that her home was in South Africa.
Her case was postponed to February 2027 to allow for the finalisation of her review challenging home affairs’ decision to deport her. She remains a free woman until this has been completed.
Adetshina was stripped of her South African identity and travel documents in 2024 following allegations that her mother, Anabela Rungo, had committed identity fraud to gain South African nationality.
Being born in South Africa does not automatically grant citizenship to that person. One of the parents has to either be a citizen themselves or a permanent resident in order for that to happen.
Rungo had her South African citizenship revoked in 2025.
The investigation into Adetshina’s status came after she became a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant. She faced criticism as people questioned her eligibility to compete given her mother’s ties to Mozambique and her father being a Nigerian citizen. She later withdrew from the pageant when these issues came to light.
In interviews Adetshina said she was born in Soweto – the South African township next to Johannesburg – and grew up in Cape Town.
By BBC News
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