Former Miss SA candidate Chidimma Adetshina is facing possible revelation of her South African ID, after that country’s revered investigative unit, The Hawks, deepened the probe into her mother.
On Tuesday, South Africa’s Home Affairs parliamentary committee revealed that the Hawks had been roped into an investigation that had since traced the woman who Adetshina’s mother is said to have stolen her identity from.
The mother, born in 1982, applied for her ID document in 1995 in Tshwane. When she went to collect her ID in Tshwane, officials informed her that it was to be collected in Johannesburg, where she had not applied for it.
She later gave birth to a child in 2001 and when she attempted to register her child’s birth, she was informed that a child had already been registered under her ID number. That child was Adetshina.
The mother reportedly spent months trying to obtain a birth certificate for her child and had to be eventually issued with a new ID number, allowing her to finally register the infant.
The Home Affairs Department said it had since paid a house visit to the Mozambican-born mother of Adetshina – and has now issued her with a legal letter asking her to explain her case or face having her identity registration cancelled.
Subsequently Adetshina’s own SA ID would be rendered a nullity as well.
The department’s anti-corruption head Constance Moitse said that Adetshina’s mother had referred them to her legal representatives when they asked to interview her.
“When we arrived at the last known address, they referred us to their lawyer, that we should speak to them through the lawyers, which is what’s currently happening,” he said.
Home Affairs legal advisor Phelelani Khumalo said Adetshina’s own citizenship could now be in jeopardy as a result of her parents’ actions.
“When everything is cancelled does it render her stateless. Does she have for instance have Nigerian citizenship? Does she have Mozambican citizenship?” he said.
