Patriotic Alliance Deputy-President Kenny Kunene has filed an urgent court interdict against Miss SA to disqualify finalist Chidimma Adetshina from the pageant finale this weekend.
The outspoken politician has also claimed that the party has been “vindicated” of their concerns about the young woman’s nationality. This, after the Department of Home Affairs released preliminary findings that Chidimma’s mother may have committed fraud and identity theft when registering her birth.
Kenny, alongside PA president Gayton McKenzie, has been accused of spreading xenophobic and Afrophobic comments about the Top 10 finalist.
The Miss SA finale takes place on Saturday, 10 August at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria.
KENNY KUNENE FILES INTERDICT AGAINST CHIDIMMA, MISS SA
On Wednesday evening, Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber revealed the findings of a preliminary investigation into Chidimma Adetshina.
This followed a request from the Miss SA organisation – with the consent of the contestant and her mother – to verify her identity documents amid public scrutiny of her nationality.
According to the 23-year-old, her father is Nigerian, and her mother is South African with Mozambican roots.
The findings revealed evidence that Chidimma’s mother may have committed fraud and identity theft when registering her birth in 2001.
It further claimed that 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.
Retweeting the post, Kenny Kunene wrote: “We are vindicated as the Patriotic Alliance. We were insulted and ridiculed, and SAHRC also joined in to threaten us and Patriotic South Africans who spoke against this fraud”.
Kunene added: “We shall not stop with our legal process to interdict this Nigerian from contesting Miss SA.”
In a follow-up tweet, Kunene revealed that the party had also filed an urgent ourt interdict to stop Chidimma from competing in the finale. The interdict was directed at Weil Entertainment, which owns the Miss SA brand.
‘RECKLESS POLITICIAN’
Although many South Africans agreed with Kenny Kunene’s stance, SABC and 702 journalist Clement Manyathela called him out for being “reckless.”
Manyathela responded to Kunene: “This doesn’t change what I challenged you on. You were a reckless politician who relied on unverified social media info to attack a contestant.
“I told you to approach Home Affairs so they can investigate instead of being populist. This is no way makes you a hero. Far from it.”
During an interview with SABC’s Face The Nation last week, Kunene addressed two trending social videos in which Chidimma Adetshina was regarded as a “Nigerian.”
“Her full name is Nigerian….It’s a problem”, he brazenly said.
He added: “There is nothing that gives us confidence that she is a South African. We want South African surnames there. We want Jacqui Mofokeng and Basetsana Kumalo, not what what”
