Hawks investigating possible fraud around Chidimma's citizenship

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has been roped in to investigate possible fraudulent activity over former Miss South Africa contestant Chidimma Adetshina’s citizenship status.

In a presentation to parliament's home affairs portfolio committee on Tuesday, the department  reiterated prima facie reasons exist to believe fraud and identity theft may have been committed by the person recorded at the department as Adetshina’s mother.

Adetshina's father is also being investigated as he was also involved in her registration of birth.

Advocate Constance Moitse, head of the department’s counter-corruption unit, told MPs the department has evidence received from hospitals, the department's own archives and from municipalities that points to the legitimate South African whose identity was stolen. The evidence suggests fraud and identity theft was committed.

As part of its investigation, the department communicated with Adetshina’s mother telephonically but later its calls went unanswered.

When its officials visited her home address, she wasn’t there but the family referred them to her lawyers.

The department is waiting for her response to the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act letter it issued to her on August 7.

Her response to the letter will determine the decision the department will take in relation to the ID in her possession.

The act gives effect to the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair as well as to the right to written reasons for administrative action.

Moitse said the department identified three officials who registered the birth at its office in Johannesburg.

One of the officials has since died and the department was investigating two others who may have been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme.

The officials are still working for the department.

Moitse said the department relied on its records to establish that the South African mother whose identity may have been stolen was registered by her mother in 1982 and as a result she entered the National Population Register.

Her birth was registered in Tshwane. She applied for an ID in 1995.

“On her return to home affairs, she learnt her ID was issued in Johannesburg at an office where she had not applied,” said Moitse.

When the woman gave birth in 2001 and went to register her child at home affairs, she discovered there was a child registered under her ID number.

“The child registered was Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina.”

The woman spent months before she could be given a new identity number, she said.

When they checked the archives of the department, they found the documents used when the “real owner” of the ID applied but they couldn't find documents for Adetshina's mother. 

When the department visited the address listed for Adetshina’s mother and that of the woman whose ID was stolen, “the information shared by the family of the lady whose ID was stolen in Tshwane matches the details contained in the department’s records”. 

“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,” she said.

The department has sought a legal opinion on Chidimma's legal status. While she was registered as a South African, with the mother's status in question, and if she loses her South African status, so will Chidimma.