A 26-year-old woman from northern Hhohho is challenging the authenticity of two Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests that cleared the man she believed to be the father of her two-year-old child.
The woman and the man she accused have been in and out of court and social welfare offices over the child’s maintenance. She has been demanding financial support from the man, who consistently denied being the father.
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The matter reached the Pigg’s Peak Magistrate’s Court, which ordered a DNA test to determine paternity. The first test came back negative.
When the man submitted the results to court, the woman rejected them, claiming they could not be trusted and requested another test. The court granted the request — but the second DNA test also cleared the man.
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Despite the results, the woman told Magistrate Nkosingiphile Maseko that she was “100% certain” the man was the father. She insisted she had never been intimate with any other man.
She further claimed that spiritual forces were influencing the paternity issue and alleged that the man was aware of this.
“I hope he doesn’t come back begging me, because he knows he is the father of the child. Let us just hope the child will not be harmed in the process, and that things remain as they are without karma,” she said.
Magistrate Maseko, however, said there was no scientific way to link the man to the child.
“We cannot take someone who has his own particular DNA and attach it to someone who has their own particular DNA,” the magistrate explained.
The woman maintained that there was no other possible father. She added that she had even approached the King’s Liaison Office for assistance through traditional structures.
With no further evidence, the court removed the matter from the roll.
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