Purported Home Affairs Report Released Concerning Chidimma Adetshina’s Ongoing Citizenship Investigation
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has allegedly released its latest findings concerning the ongoing citizenship investigation of ex Miss SA finalist Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina.
While the Department has not confirmed the validity of the report currently circulating on social media, namely X, photos of the alleged investigations have alluded to the DHA having made inroads surrounding the scandal.
On the photos, watermarked with official government emblems, the report claims that the investigations led by the Hawks have yielded the results of several officials who aided the scheme of identity theft being identified. The circulating report also indicates that the DHA was also able to get to the bottom of who was the victim of the theft, when she was born, and the process she had to go through in order to register herself into the Home Affairs system.
“The Department has identified officials who registered the birth at the Home Affairs Office in Johannesburg. One of the officials has since passed on. The Department is investigating two other officials who may have been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme. The Department has relied on its records to establish that the South African mother whose identity may have been stolen was registered by her mother in 1982 and as a result she entered the National Population Register. Her birth was registered in Tshwane. In 1995, she applied for an ID. Three months after the application, she returned to Home Affairs to collect the ID,” the report said.
A photo of the alleged report
The purported report goes on to state that the mother whose identity may have been taken discovered that not only was the ID she had applied for deployed to an office in Johannesburg she hadn’t gone to initially, she would also find out in 2001, when she wanted to register her own child at Home Affairs, that another child had already been registered under her ID number unbeknownst to her. The child was Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina.
“On her [the victim’s] return to Home Affairs, she learnt that her ID was issued in Johannesburg at an office where she had not applied for. She then gave birth in 2001. When she went to register her child at Home Affairs, she discovered that there was a child registered under her ID number. The child that was registered was Ms Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina,” said the apparent report.
A photo of the alleged report
The Department has also stated the investigation is now at an advanced stage.
The circulation of the report comes after the Department asked for space to conclude the citizenship investigation which kicked off on the 5th of August 2024 due to immense public scrutiny and pressure regarding the validity of Chidimma’s citizenship and her eligibility for contesting for the recently concluded 2024 Miss SA pageant.
Home Affairs officials have neither verified the circulating report, nor have they updated the Department’s official website by uploading the report.