Man Gets US$2,500 Maintenance Money Back After DNA Test Shows Child Not His

A local court has ordered a woman to repay US$2,500 to her former partner for child maintenance he had paid, after a DNA test showed the child they supposedly had together was fathered by another man.

Clean Nyathi, from Dete in Hwange, told B-Metro he decided to take a paternity test after his former partner, Cynthia Dube, threatened to have him arrested for defaulting on payments.

Dube, who is now married to another man and has two children with him, said she had been dealt a financial blow because she had no means to raise the money the court ordered her to pay within seven days.

Nyathi said: “This whole issue started in 2014 in Dete. I always knew deep down that the child was not mine. That is why I pushed for a DNA test.”

Nyathi said he asked Dube to take a paternity test on several occasions, but she refused three times before finally consenting.

“She kept refusing when I asked for DNA. That alone raised suspicion,” he said.

He said he eventually paid about US$450 from his own pocket to settle the matter once and for all.

“I have been paying maintenance for years. It started at US$40, then US$50, then US$60. All that time, I was paying for a child that is not mine,” he complained.

Nyathi claimed Dube was involved with other men at the time, including a taxi driver, and said he had always suspected the child might have been fathered by someone else.

“She had many relationships. I am not the only one in the picture,” he said.

He added that Dube has six children with different men, a detail he believes adds to the confusion rather than clearing it up.

Nyathi said, however, that he is not actively pursuing the money for now.

“If I don’t get it, I will eventually take it back to court,” he said.

Dube said she met Nyathi while she was already in another relationship and began seeing him secretly.

She claimed things changed when her first boyfriend found out about the affair and became violent, forcing her to move in with Nyathi. By then, she said, she was already pregnant.

The relationship later broke down, leading to court battles over maintenance.

She insists she agreed to the DNA test, but delays meant it took years to happen.