Chidimma Adetshina, the beauty queen of South Africa, is having a citizenship problem. The 23-year-old law student, who rose to fame as a Miss South Africa finalist, has come under scrutiny for her nationality. Given her Nigerian and Mozambican ancestry, there have been concerns expressed regarding her eligibility to represent South Africa.

Concerns have been raised over the legitimacy of Adetshina’s South African citizenship due to allegations of identity theft against her mother. She was forced to leave the Miss South Africa contest due to the issue, stating that she was worried about her family’s safety.

According to the BBC, the Department of Home Affairs began investigating her case after she became a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant but faced criticism as people questioned her eligibility to compete because her mother has Mozambican roots and her father is Nigerian.

The controversy sparked a wave of xenophobic vitriol in South Africa, after which Ms Adetshina told the BBC she would need therapy to recover. The Department of Home Affairs made the announcement about the withdrawal of her ID papers to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Tommy Makhode, the top civil servant at the department, said Ms Adetshina’s mother would also have her documents cancelled as they had both failed to meet Monday’s deadline to provide reasons why they should be eligible to keep them.

Adetshina, who has not lived in Nigeria for two decades, received an invitation to represent Nigeria in the Miss Universe competition despite the controversy. This unexpected turn of events has further complicated her situation.

A 50-year-old Assam woman, who was declared an illegal migrant from Bangladesh due to her mismatch names in voters’ lists, has now regained her Indian citizenship after a six-year-long legal battle.

Dulubi Bibi, a resident of Cachar district’s Udharbond area, was declared a foreign migrant by the Foreigners Tribunal in 2017 in Assam’s Silchar district based on her mismatched names in the multiple voter lists.

Last week, Ms Bibi was declared as an Indian citizen based on circumstantial evidence.

The Foreigners Tribunal officer wrote in its order dated 7/10/2023, a copy of which is available with NDTV, that considering the facts and materials submitted and depositions in the earliest and present detailed of 1965, 1985 and 1997 along with the new documents of 1993 and 2015 voters list are to be appreciated without any doubt.

Expressing her happiness after proving her citizenship, Ms Bibi said; “Today I am happy because I got my Indian Citizenship. After having Indian Citizenship, I was branded as Bangladeshi. My grandparents are Indian Citizens how I can branded as Bangladeshi. For two years I stayed in Silchar detention centre, I am a Muslim woman and my family is conservative. I used to work as a cook before going to jail.”

“I’m not sure my husband will accept me or I’ll get any works now. Will the government take responsibility of this damage,” she further told while speaking with NDTV.

In March 2017, during the hearing of a 1998 case under the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act, she was declared as a Bangladeshi national after her name was found mismatch in the electoral roll.

Foreigners Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that decides the citizenship status of persons living in Assam, also found inconsistencies in her father’s and grandparents’ names in voters’ lists.

Following this, she was arrested in April 2018 and sent to a Silchar-based detention centre.

After spending two years in a detention camp, she was released on bail in April 2020 following a direction of the Supreme Court.

In May 2023, she challenged the 2017 FT-order in the Guwahati High Court.