All this on prima facie findings? Meanwhile @HomeAffairsSA asked for space to investigate. As for being a beneficiary of a crime; should that not be pronounced by a court? Has Home Affairs established that she’s not legally South African?
Now that it has been established by Home Affairs that Chidima is NOT legally South African, while it may not be her fault and even though she was indeed born and raised in South Africa, like all of us, she unfortunately CANNOT be a beneficiary of an alleged crime; irrespective that it was committed by her mother at her birth as per Department Home Affairs prima facie findings. Ultimately she too is a victim of her mother's indiscretion - assuming she didn't know.
IF she was LEGALLY South African, as I stated clearly in all my communications and stand by every letter, "IF Vanessa Chidimma Adetshina is legally South African, she has every right to enter the @official_misssa pageant."
There are lessons to be learned for all. For the pageant to do proper vetting. For South Africa to fix deficiencies and systems in managing immigration and citizenship. For the rest of us not to respond emotionally but with facts. For us to treat EVERYONE equally on this matter, not just fellow Africans. For us as South Africans to not paint all fellow Africans with the same brush. IF one is legally in South Africa then, then they have all the rights accorded legal aliens and citizens. Given South Africa's migrant history and porous borders, and the fact established by HSRC that "57% of South Africans are raised without fathers," chances are real that anyone in this statistic could have non-South African fathers. And there's nothing wrong with that [non-South African fathers]. Thus we must tread carefully when discriminating others on basis their country of
origin.
Finally, for South Africa to define and demonstrate what it means to be South African underpinned by a spirit of ubuntu, and common identity and destiny with the rest of Africa. As Kwame Nkrumah warned, "if we don't unite as Africans, we'll perish."
@HomeAffairsSA did some digging, found what it found, the minister comes out with a statement of “what appears to be”. Can we please have LEADERSHIP. @Leon_Schreib you could have completed investigation then issued the statement.