Chidimma Adetshina, a finalist in the Miss South Africa 2024 competition, has been facing social media attacks due to her citizenship status and Nigerian heritage.
Despite the backlash, Adetshina has clarified that a viral video featuring a Nigerian man, who is married to a South African woman, is not her father.
The man in the video mentioned that he moved to South Africa in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup, a time when Adetshina would have been nine years old.
Adetshina, born in 2001, is the daughter of a Nigerian father and a South African mother of Mozambican descent.
“I am Nigerian and my wife is South African, and I have lived in South Africa as well. I spent 10 years in South Africa,” he said.
When asked if he had children in the country, he confidently responded that they are South African citizens with his surname, as he is married to their mother.
Social media users speculated that the surname is Chidimma, the same as the Miss SA finalist. The man mentioned that he came to South Africa in 2010 during the World Cup, accompanied by his wife, whom he claimed to have met in the United Kingdom.
“We met in the UK, so in 2010 during the World Cup we decided that we would visit SA to watch the World Cup; that was my first time entering South Africa,” he responded when asked about the type of visa he used to enter the country.
He said he entered the country with a visitor’s visa, citing that no other visa was suitable for attending the match.
“So, we came to the World Cup and we returned to the UK after a few weeks. Then I had to come back again with a visitor’s visa.”
He said following his return to the country, he got married to his wife.
When asked whether he considers his children to be Nigerian or South African, he replied: “It’s called dual citizenship, they are both.”
While netizens were convinced that the man in the viral video was Adetshina’s father, the Miss SA finalist took to her Instagram stories to set the record straight.
She said she was told about the man claiming to be her father.
“The individual in question claiming and impersonating to be my dad is NOT MY FATHER,” she wrote.
She concluded her Instagram story post with, “Thank you.”