The Department of Home Affairs has disclosed that it discovered potential identity theft by the mother of Chidimma Adetshina. As a result of this revelation, the national beauty pageant is now in turmoil, as Adetshina had already been subjected to online abuse due to her Nigerian heritage.

Adetshina revealed that she was born in Soweto to a Nigerian father and a South African mother of Mozambican descent .

Chidimma Adetshina has been the target of hateful, xenophobic slurs on social media since being named a finalist in Miss South Africa in July, with some questioning her credentials. This led to the Department of Home Affairs probing her citizenship, after a request from the pageant's organisers.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said that the ministry had established "prima facie indications" that Adetshina's mother may have committed fraud and stolen the identity of a South African woman.

"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," the ministry said.

Schreiber, however, said Adetshina didn't participate in her mother's alleged illegal actions in 2001 since she was an infant.

The official crowning of Miss SA will take place on August 10.