Maimane proposes Home Affairs court to curb identity theft

Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane is proposing that a court dedicated to the Department of Home Affairs be established to deal with issues of identity theft, duplicated IDs, as well as with refugee applications and disputes which may arise at any given moment.

“Issues of identity cannot be left in limbo for decades because lack of documentation and stolen identity can be very adverse to the victims of such failures. This necessitates the need for a specialized court to deal with all of these matters,” he said on X, adding that all cases relating to identity documents must be treated with urgency.

Maimane made the statement on Thursday following social media uproar about the contentious citizenship of Chidimma Adetshina, who was one of the contestants in the upcoming Miss South Africa (SA) competition.

Adetshina is said to be of Nigerian and Mozambican heritage, but was born in South Africa to parents who both have residency status.

In the ongoing investigation into the citizenship of Adetshina, the Department of Home Affairs said that prima facie reasons exist to believe that fraud and identity theft may have been committed by the person recorded in Home Affairs records as Chidimma Adetshina’s mother.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the department said it wished to provide an update on the ongoing investigation into the citizenship of Adetshina.

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The reason for the ongoing nature of the investigation, according to the department, is that its scope has broadened since the original request received from the organisers of Miss SA, based on the information uncovered by Home Affairs investigators thus far.

“On Monday, the organisers of the event sent the department a request to verify the citizenship of a contestant, Chidimma Adetshina. The request was accompanied by written consent from both Adetshina and her mother.

“Upon receiving the request, the department deployed every resource at its disposal to establish the truth. This has included archival research, visits to hospitals and site visits to verify information,” Home Affairs said.

“An innocent South African mother, whose identity may have been stolen as part of the alleged fraud committed by Adetshina’s mother, suffered as a result because she could not register her child.”

The department also added that it has broadened its investigation to identify and pursue any officials involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme and is obtaining legal advice on the implications of the alleged fraudulent activity on Adetshina’s citizenship status.

Adetshina has since withdrawn from the Miss South Africa competition. She made the announcement on her Instagram page on Thursday.

Home Affairs explained that it provided the public updates on this matter based on the official request received from Miss SA, as well as the consent provided by both the contestant and her mother.

The investigation is ongoing and the department has asked the South African public for “space” to get to the bottom of this case.