Beauty pageant clouded by xenophobia row

Gender and social activist Anele Mda has called for the removal of Chidimma Adetshina as a finalist in the Miss SA 2024 pageant because ‘SA is not for foreigners and no Nigerian is going to be paraded here’. Adetshina has a Nigerian father. The Guardian reports that ever since the 23-year-old law student was announced as one of the contestants in the running to represent SA at the Miss Universe pageant, there has been constant questioning of whether she is an SA citizen. In response to a petition that calls for Adetshina’s removal from the pageant, Mda clarified that she did not initiate the petition but supports its objective. That petition had over 15 000 signatures. IoL reports that Mda, who was an independent candidate in the recent elections, has been targeting Adetshina for weeks. ‘We will not allow any foreigner to ascend to spaces meant for SA women whose issues and challenges haven't yet been given the much needed profiling and exposure,’ she said. Mda has defended the backlash, saying ‘I fear no label of being called xenophobic. This is a term that has been perpetuated as a way of silencing South Africans against any wrongs committed by foreigners in our country.' Chronically high rates of unemployment and violent crime have fuelled anti-African immigrant sentiment in SA. Operation Dudula, which was founded in 2021 and takes its name from the Zulu word meaning to 'push away' or 'drive back', has attacked people accused of being foreign drug dealers, as well as businesses thought to have had foreign employees.