Parly committee expects detailed report from Home Affairs Dept on Chidimma Adetshina matter

CAPE TOWN - Parliament’s home affairs committee says it will expect the department to lay all the details before it once an investigation has been concluded into suspected identity fraud involving a former Miss South Africa contestant. 

Twenty-three-year-old Chidimma Adetshina on Thursday withdrew as a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant in response to the backlash over her, and her parents’ citizenship status in South Africa. 

Home affairs committee chairperson, Mosa Chabane, said that preliminary findings by the department, as revealed by Minister Leon Schreiber on Wednesday evening, left more questions than there were answers.

The home affairs portfolio committee is urging the department to speedily conclude its probe into the citizenship of Adetshina to ensure accountability and justice. 

Adetshina’s Nigerian father and Mozambican mother have been drawn into the saga after the Home Affairs Department was asked to confirm her South African identity status by the Miss SA organisers, ostensibly with consent from her parents. 

Chabane said that preliminary findings that her mother’s status was linked to possible identity fraud, once again appear to point to corrupt officials selling citizenship - a concern for the committee. 

Chabane said this also has the effect of impacting negatively on the population register. 

He welcomed the intention to investigate staff with the previous Parliament having also grappled with the issue of the collaboration between officials and syndicates to fraudulently sell official documents. 

Once this investigation is concluded, Chabane said the committee would expect a detailed update on the matter and a comprehensive report from the anti-corruption branch on all its investigations.