Former pageant star Chidimma Adetshina faces deportation after South African authorities move to cancel her documents, stirring legal and emotional fallout.
Chidimma Adetshina once walked away from a pageant crown because South Africa decided she didn’t belong. Now the country wants her out entirely.
The former Miss Universe Nigeria, 25, was back in a Cape Town courtroom on June 9 after being arrested, and she’s due to return on July 16 as immigration authorities push to have her deported. It’s a strange full-circle moment for a woman born in Soweto, whose only “crime,” in the eyes of critics, always seemed to be having a Nigerian father.
This isn’t new territory for Adetshina. Back in 2024, South Africa’s Home Affairs Department opened an investigation claiming her mother, Anabela Rungo, used a stolen identity to register her birth. Rungo, who is Mozambican, was arrested over the allegations in early 2025, and officials eventually cancelled both women’s documentation.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has laid out a detailed timeline: Adetshina was reportedly told in September 2024 that her papers would be voided, then allegedly tried securing a South African visa using a fraudulent bank statement after obtaining a Nigerian passport. That move, officials say, got her flagged as a prohibited person by December 2024.
Schreiber further alleges she crossed back into South Africa through the Lebombo border, claiming South African citizenship, only to have her renewed application, and one for her young son, denied.
The backstory here matters. Adetshina withdrew from Miss South Africa in 2024 after the citizenship questions exploded into public hostility, with many accusing critics of targeting her simply for being of Nigerian descent. She didn’t disappear, though. She pivoted, represented Nigeria at Miss Universe instead, and finished as first runner-up on the global stage.
That resilience is part of why this case has struck a nerve again. An immigration officer’s affidavit now claims system checks show she holds no valid residency status, despite being born on South African soil.
For now, Adetshina remains free but restricted, ordered to stay at her current address and report any change in movement, job, or residence ahead of her next hearing.
