What makes a person a South African? Is it familial ties, loving and living the culture, or does one simply have to be born here to be South African?

This is a question that the Miss South Africa Organisation is grappling with right now, given the backlash against one of its Top 13 contestants, 23-year-old Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina. 

Adetshina was born and raised in Soweto. Her father is Nigerian, and her mother is Mozambican, but like Adetshina, she grew up in Soweto. Her inclusion has riled up some sections of the South African population who have called for her disqualification. The account @Joy_Zelda, which is known for posting divisive content, called for a petition that would see Adetshina disqualified from the pageant, claiming that she “can’t even speak our language, She knows nothing about our culture We South Africans can’t allow her to represent us as #MissSA2024” (sic).

The backlash has put back in the spotlight xenophobic tensions that are rife in South Africa. Speaking to Sowetan, Adetshina said she wants to use her story to unite South Africans. She admitted that while she had tried not to let it bother her, it had been tough. “You try so hard to represent your country and wear it with so much pride, but all these people are not in support of you… I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t know what to say or not to say because this is such a sensitive topic. I don’t want to end up saying something and then offend people,” she said.😢

Although our Constitution protects both citizens and non-citizens, there are pockets of South Africans, including politicians,  who feel that foreign nationals should leave the country.

We watched in horror in May 2008 when xenophobic violence broke out across South Africa, leaving 62 dead. One of the victims, a Mozambican man named Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave, 35, was burned to death and became the grim mascot of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

Our current Sports, Arts and Culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, is the leader of the Patriotic Alliance, which has called for the mass deportation of foreign nationals who are in South Africa illegally. In August 2022, a video of then Limpopo Health MEC and now Premier Dr. Phophi Ramathuba humiliating a Zimbabwean patient went viral. In the video, Ramathuba, an ANC member, can be heard telling the patient, “You’re supposed to be with Mnangagwa. He doesn’t give me money to operate you guys. Now I must operate you with my limited budget.”

In recent years, we’ve also seen movements like Operation Dudula, which has become notorious for raiding businesses belonging to foreign nationals and forcing shops to close. Set up in Soweto in 2021, Dudula is the first group to formalise what had been sporadic waves of xenophobia-fuelled vigilante attacks. It calls itself a civic movement, running on an anti-migrant platform, with the word “dudula” meaning “to force out” in Zulu.

Journalist and author Fred Khumalo argues that the attacks on Adetshina are a reflection of her critics’ lack of self-love and their hatred of other black people who force them to ask themselves who they are. “Adetshina, without meaning it, is asking many to consider the question: what makes you a South African? It is your surname, your colour, the history of where your parents came from?”

At the end of the day, it’s a non-issue fuelled by xenophobia. To be South African is to be a mix of everything. Adetshina shows that being South African is not just about one language, culture, or tradition. It’s about embracing our complexity, diversity, and shared humanity. Adetshina is South African. She is one of us. Gooble gobble, we accept her.

What we should, instead, be fighting is Gauteng’s dominance on the list of finalists. Nine out of the Top 16 finalists are from Gauteng. Mpumalanga is a distant second with three contestants. Down with Gauteng Supremacy!