BY: Sharon Kopano Mawila
Social media is divided over recent reports that one of the Miss South Africa contestants, Chidimma, is not originally from South Africa. She will represent the country worldwide if she wins the Miss South Africa 2024 title on August 10.
It is alleged that both parents of the beauty queen are not from South Africa, with her mother being from Mozambique and her father from Nigeria. Consequently, South African citizens have called for her disqualification and the investigation of the matter, issuing various petitions, with the most recent one gaining momentum with 14,000 signatures.
Responding to these allegations, Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza said, “South African citizenship is obtained by birth, descent, or naturalization. Earlier this week, the government stated that one automatically qualifies for citizenship if they were born in South Africa to at least one parent who was a South African permanent residency holder or if they were adopted by a South African citizen.”
However, the response by the Deputy Home Affairs Minister did not quell the uproar, as many South Africans are determined not to have an ‘outsider’ represent them. Social media users have responded to this issue in numbers, with one user saying, “We are really doomed as South Africans; we are going to be represented by someone who doesn’t have our roots. This win is definitely for Nigeria, not us.”
Currently, it is unclear if the Miss South Africa organization will disqualify Chidimma, as they stated in a press release that “All documents provided by the entrants are screened and vetted. Chidimma is a South African.”
