South Africa Department of Home Affairs has on Tuesday, revealed more details about an investigation launched into Chidimma Adetshina’s citizenship authenticity.
Gatekeepers News reports that Chidimma withdrew from this year’s Miss South Africa pageant after her mother was accused of identity theft and was backlashed from South Africans.
She was subsequently invited to contest in Miss Universe Nigeria pageant and is competing as Miss Taraba State.
Home Affairs Department commenced an investigation into Chidimma’s citizenship on 8 August, following a request from Miss South Africa organisers.
The Department in a statement released, revealed that the South African mother whose identity was allegedly stolen by Ms Adetshina’s mother has been identified.
The statement followed a presentation by Advocate Constance Moitse, Head of Counter-Corruption Unit, to the Parliament’s Home Affairs Portfolio Committee on the ongoing investigation.
The statement goes: “The Department has relied on its records to establish that the South African mother whose identity may have been stolen was registered by her mother in 1982, and as a result, she entered the National Population Register. Her birth was registered in Tshwane. In 1995, she applied for an ID. Three months after the application, she returned to Home Affairs to collect the ID. On her return to Home Affairs, she learnt that her ID was issued in Johannesburg at an office she had not applied for.”
“She then gave birth in 2001. When she went to register her child at Home Affairs, she discovered a child was registered under her ID number. The child that was registered was Miss Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina. She then spent months before she could be given a new identity number. Home Affairs has visited the address listed for Ms Adetshina’s mother and that of the lady whose ID was stolen. The information the lady’s family shared, whose ID was stolen in Tshwane, matches the details in DHA records.”
The Department added that it is obtaining legal advice on implications of alleged fraudulent activity on Ms Adetshina’s citizenship status.
It said: “Ms Adetshina’s mother was issued a Promotion of Administrative Justice Act letter on 07 August 2024. Her response to this letter will determine the final decision that the Department will take about the ID she is currently carrying. The Department’s ongoing investigation also looks at other important areas for a fair and accurate conclusion of this case.”
“The Department’s investigation is at an advanced stage. This investigation now includes the involvement of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks.) The Department’s drive towards digitisation will eliminate instances of fraudulent interference”.
Home Affairs further revealed that three officials who allegedly conspired with Ms Adetshina’s mother to commit the identity theft are being investigated.
It said, “The Department has identified officials who registered the birth at the Home Affairs Office in Johannesburg. One of the officials has since passed on. The Department is investigating two other officials who may have been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme.”
