When the Miss SA organisation announced the official Top 16, a specific name grabbed the attention of South Africans nationally, Soweto’s Chidimma Adetshina.
The 23-year-old started trending early July then went on to trend for weeks on end, which made her stand out from the other Miss SA contestants, however that came with her facing a lot of online backlash as well as xenophobic attacks.
South Africans were divided when it came to Adetshina’s matter, half were supporting her while the other continued to drag her name and made petitions, calling for her withdrawal from the Miss SA 2024 beauty pageant.
Netizens were causing an uproar on social media, escalating the matter to the Department of Home Affairs, as well as questioning her Nigerian and Mozambican roots and the eligibility of her South African citizenship.
Home Affairs conducted an investigation and found prima facie evidence that her mother, Anabella Rungo committed identity theft and fraud in the year that Adetshina was born, 2001.
With pressure mounting and what Home Affairs revealed, on August 8 Adetshina withdrew from the Miss SA competition, just two days away from the finale.
“Being part of the Miss South Africa 2024 competition has been an amazing journey; however, after much careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw myself from the competition for the safety and wellbeing of my family and I”, she said.
Her supporters expressed shock while others rejoiced and said that she did a good thing by withdrawing.
However, just after a few days, the Miss Universe Nigeria organisation took to social media and released a statement saying that they are inviting the 23-year-old to come participate in their beauty pageant.
Rejoice turned into shock because no one saw it coming that Adetshina might take part in another beauty pageant, in another country.
Four days later, on August 14 after the Miss SA finale show, the beauty queen took to Instagram to announce that she is accepting the invitation to go participate in her father’s land in Nigeria.
“I have received an invitation from the Silverbird Group who are the organisers of the Miss Universe Nigeria pageant to participate in the Miss Universe Nigeria 2024, and I say this with great excitement because I have decided to accept this invitation,” she wrote in the caption.
Surprisingly, Adetshina received immense support from South Africans as the Miss Universe Nigeria finals were approaching, and after a few days, the model was in the lead after she received thousands of votes from South Africans.
Netizens took to X urging everyone to support Adetshina and vote for her as well.
On September 1, when the Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 finale took place, thousands of South Africans watched the live stream on Youtube, and Adetshina won the title.
After facing so much online criticism and backlash, the mother-of-one went on to represent Nigeria at the glitzy and glamorous Miss Universe 2024 pageant which was taking place in Mexico City.
She further conquered by making history for Nigeria as she reached the top two, which was the first time since 2001 when Agbani Darego made it to the Top 10.
While she was gearing for the Miss Universe journey in Mexico City, Home Affairs gave an update and revealed that they are about to revoke Adetshina and her family’s travel and ID documentation since they failed to respond to a deadline they were given to make a video explaining why they should keep their South African documents.
Adetshina was placed the first runner-up at Miss Universe and holds the title, Miss Universe Africa and Oceania 2024.
Even though Adetshina’s journey has been faced with so much adversity and negativity, it is inspiring to see that she held her head up high and continued to remain focused on her end goal, which was to reach the Miss Universe stage.
IOL