Former Miss SA contestant’s saga sparks mistrust: Madonsela

Former Miss SA Judge, Thuli Madonsela says the manner in which citizenship status of former Miss SA contestant, Chidimma Adetshina, is being handled has caused mistrust between South Africa and the African continent.

This comes after Home Affairs found prima facie evidence suggesting that Adetshina’s mother may have committed fraud and identity theft.

Adetshina has since withdrawn from the competition citing safety concerns and the well-being of her family.

Professor Madonsela says the matter could have been handled better.

“I’m not too surprised that there are competitive concerns about who gets these opportunities. What I was concerned about was ‘how do we express concerns if we do have them?’ If somebody thought in particular was not a South African and they had real evidence to that effect the best thing would have been to whistleblow to Home Affairs to look into it. The way it was done has created a climate of mistrust between our country and the rest of the continent,” Madonsela.