Home affairs to probe Miss SA contestant Adetshina's nationality after family request

Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber says the department will only investigate the nationality of Miss SA contestant Chidimma Vannessa Adetshina because the family requested it and not because of the calls made by people on social media.

Many South Africans have questioned Adetshina's identity, arguing she was ineligible to compete for the title because of her Nigerian-born father and Mozambican-born mother, despite being born in South Africa. Schreiber said the family wanted home affairs to verify Adetshina's citizenship status and put the matter to bed.

“We will update the public once we've done that, but I want to make it very clear that we are doing so with the consent of the individuals involved. We are doing this because they approached us, and we will not violate POPI [the Protection of Personal Information Act] or undermine the rule of law in cases where people don't bring evidence or don't submit proper applications,” he said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.

Schreiber said the department will not be swayed by social media calls to investigate without providing evidence that supports claims that she is not South African.

“One thing we will not do is respond to an uproar about a particular individual when there is no actual matter before home affairs. We cannot go and violate the protection of the Personal Information [POPI] Act because if someone comes to me and makes an allegation against you without any evidence, and suddenly a lot of people repeat that allegation, it would be a violation of your rights in terms of the POPI Act.

“I think it's been clear from home affairs that we are not going to be dragged into innuendos, rumours and quite vicious episodes that we see on social media. If you have a complaint against someone, you should bring prima facie evidence to our counter-corruption unit, for example, and we will investigate the matter. That did not happen. There has not been a single actual complaint with actual evidence. Not one.”

He said according to the law, Adetshina is South African.

“I have been very clear that we have to get back to the rule of law, and in fact it's even in the GNU statement of intent that we have to anchor our decisions in the rule of law.

“I know there was a lot of noise, and many people were shouting, 'Do this! Do that!' That's not how it works in a country with the rule of law. We have a democratically elected government that's supposed to abide by the constitution and all the laws, including the POPI Act.

“We cannot be governed by social media, and we've seen some of the results of that over the years as well.”

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