By Rorisang Modiba
- Miss Universe Nigeria’s mother was arrested in Cape Town for getting South African citizenship illegally in 2001.
- Child welfare officials stepped in to care for the beauty queen’s underage child who was living with the grandmother.
Home Affairs officials arrested the mother of Miss Universe Nigeria in Cape Town on Saturday morning.
Anabela Rungo, mother of beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina, was arrested for allegedly obtaining fake South African citizenship.
Home Affairs, backed by police, arrested Rungo after months of digging through old files and visiting places where she claimed to have lived.
“In an apparent act of brazen disregard for the legal consequences of her conduct, it appears that Ms Rungo has defied her undesirable status through her Mozambican passport. Investigations are ongoing into further potential misrepresentation and fraudulent conduct,” Home Affairs said in a statement.
The drama began in September 2024, when officials stripped Rungo of her South African citizenship after finding she had obtained it illegally. But she kept living in South Africa, using her Mozambican passport.
During the raid, officials found Adetshina’s underage child living with Rungo. Social workers and police child protection officers stepped in to look after the child.
Adetshina, who was crowned Miss Universe Nigeria 2024 and was first runner-up at Miss Universe, is not in trouble. She was a baby when her mother allegedly committed the fraud in 2001.
After processing at Home Affairs, Rungo will face fraud charges at the police station.
The citizenship scandal first hit the headlines when Adetshina tried to enter Miss South Africa last year.
Questions about her citizenship forced her to pull out of the pageant in August 2024, after Home Affairs said they had strong evidence her mother might have committed fraud and identity theft.
Home Affairs cancelled Adetshina’s South African ID in September. But the beauty queen bounced back, winning Miss Universe Nigeria and coming second in the Miss Universe pageant.
Pictured above: Chidimma Adetshina.
Image source: @chichi_vanessa
