South Africa's arts and culture minister on Friday urged a Miss South Africa contestant of Nigerian descent to prove her nationality, wading into a raging controversy over her right to represent the country.
Chidimma Adetshina, 23, has been the subject of vicious, xenophobic attacks on social media since she was announced as a finalist in the national beauty fair in July, with many questioning her credentials.
"Why can't she just produce (documents) and say she's South African?" arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, a politician known for his harsh anti-immigration sta nce, told national broadcaster SABC.
"There are beautiful South African young ladies that might be robbed of this opportunity".
'Meets eligibility criteria'
The pageant's organisers said Adetshina, a law student, is a South African citizen holding "both a South African ID and passport" and thus "meets all the contestant eligibility criteria".
Adetshina who is due to compete in the Miss South Africa finals next week, has previously told local media she was born in Soweto to a Nigerian father and a South African mother of Mozambican descent.
South Africa grants citizenship by birth to anyone born in the country after 1995.
Yet, her participation in the pageant has stoked anti-foreigner sentiment in the nation, which has witnessed violent, and at times deadly, attacks on immigrants in the past.
Expressed solidarity
Politicians, celebrities and ordinary citizens have weighed in on the debate on social media and talk shows.
The leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party expressed its solidarity, saying attacks against her reflected the "remnants of apartheid and colonisation, where divisive ideologies continue to plague our society."
"It is particularly troubling that previous contestants of foreign descent did not face similar scrutiny when they were white or Asian," the party said in a statement.
Hostility towards foreigners has increased in recent years, as South Africans tire of unwavering unemployment.
'xenophobic bullying'
Despite lacklustre economic growth, the continent's most industrialised nation attracts millions of migrants, mainly from other African countries.
"If she's South African, I'll be the first person to apologise," said McKenzie, who was appointed minister in June, as his far-right Patriotic Alliance party joined a coalition government.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) condemned McKenzie's rearks on the case as "xenophobic bullying".
