South Africa to strip pilloried beauty queen of ID documents

Johannesburg: South Africa is stripping a would be Miss South Africa contestant, who was at the centre of a row over her nationality, of her national...

Johannesburg: South Africa is stripping a would-be Miss South Africa contestant, who was at the centre of a row over her nationality, of her national identity papers, the government said.

Chidimma Adetshina, 23, withdrew from the Miss South Africa pageant in August amid a torrent of abuse over allegations she was not South African which prompted an official investigation into her citizenship.

The government said Tuesday it was cancelling Adetshina and her mother's identification documents after they missed a deadline to justify keeping them.

The law student was born in South Africa to a Nigerian father but faced a backlash that exposed anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa.

Her Nigerian heritage attracted vicious xenophobic attacks when she was announced as a Miss South Africa finalist.