The Miss South Africa 2024 beauty contest has continued to be marred by xenophobic backlash aimed at the Soweto-born Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina.
The Cape Town-based Adetshina, 23, is one of the top 13 beauty contestants who remain in the running for the Miss SA 2024 crown.
The law student is currently underfire due to her Nigerian and Mozambican heritage. Adetshina is a product of a Nigerian father and a South African woman of Mozambican descent.
The Miss South Africa pageant has said Adetshina meets their criteria as she has a valid South African ID.
But this has not stopped people from being vile towards her on social media, with some starting petitions calling for her disqualification and saying she could not represent them due to her Nigerian and Mozambican heritage.
One social media user, Siya Ntuli, has started a petition on the change.org website calling on the removal of Adetshina from participating in Miss SA. In his petition, which has garnered over 3,000 signatures in the space of a day, Ntuli claims Adetshina is not South African regardless of her being born in South Africa.
Writing on IOL this week, IOL’s deputy editor Lee Rondganger, defended Adetshina’s participation in the Miss SA 2024 contest.
“South Africa has always been a melting pot of nationalities… The Freedom Charter, a cornerstone of our democracy, unequivocally states that “South Africa belongs to those who live in it,” he wrote.
He further stated that this foundational principle of the Freedom Charter is a call to embrace our diversity and reject narrow-minded nationalism.
“The online vitriol directed at Adetshina exposes a disturbing vein of xenophobia and regressive view of national identity,” he shared.
Rondganger further shared that the true test of our national character lies in our ability to embrace all who call South Africa home, regardless of their surname or heritage.
Rondganger’s column can be read here.
Political commentator Mightie Jamie said the Adetshina saga was showing afrophobic sentiments by some South Africans. He said Chidimma Adetshina was born in South Africa, identified as South African and that should normally be “the end of the matter”.
“However it does seem as if we are seeing manifestations of Afrophobia towards her. Afrophobia is hatred, or resentment towards African immigrants or African immigrants communities in particular,” Jamie told IOL.
Jamie, who is known for sharing his political views in the media and on social media, told IOL that Adetshina was being broadly rejected due to her Nigerian lineage. He said this rejection and the persistent question of her not being South African “enough” showed Afrophobic sentiments.
IOL