Two Men in Shock After Discovering They Have Been Raising Other Men's Children

Two men have been left in bitter shock after realizing that the children they thought were their own actually belonged to other men as they were deceived. 


What could be more painful than realizing after many years that the child you called your own doesn't belong to you?

That was the fate of two men. A deoxyribonucleic acid tests popularly known as DNA tests, has revealed the shocking details. For Obert Mapiye and Famous Maphosa a soldier and nurse respectively, the truth has come to their attention.

According to Masasi Harare, the unexpected discoveries were made last week at the Bulawayo Maintenance Court where they were later exonerated from paying maintenance eight years after they started making the monthly payments.


Mapiye was allegedly tricked by his ex-lover Brenda Tshuma, a prison officer based at Khami Prison Complex, Zimbabwe while Maphosa was tricked by Nomathemba Ndlovu who is now based in South Africa.

Mapiye and Tshuma have two children both at the centre of “paternity fraud” and the DNA tests which proved negative were done on the first child.

In her maintenance suit, Tshuma claimed Mapiye was able to pay upkeep for the two children aged eight and four years respectively since he was their biological father.

Mapiye and Maphosa who were paying a monthly maintenance of $40 each for the “step-children” applied for paternity tests after raising doubts of having fathered them.

The tests were done by Unistel Medical Laboratories in South Africa and separately cost $350 each.

"An incompatibility with paternity was found more than two (2) markers. Paternity of individual (Maphosa Thomas/ Mapiye Obert) is excluded with a high degree of certainty.”

In his application for DNA tests, Maphosa claimed he had his first se_xual encounter with Tshuma sometime in April 2006 and he was surprised when she delivered a full term baby on 23 November.

“I have been paying maintenance for one child by order of this court. The background of the matter is that I met Nomathemba Ndlovu sometime in April 2006 and she delivered a full term baby on 23 November. Ordinary calculation revealed that she conceived earlier than our first meeting to allow nine months gestation.

“This child was delivered as a full term baby and it is therefore my belief that I was not responsible for this pregnancy and I should not be the responsible person for maintenance. I hereby apply to this court to order paternity tests to determine or confirm my liability,” reads part of his application.

DNA paternity tests are conducted in cases where a man raises doubt of having fathered a child and he is given up to six months to undergo testing during which period he is ordered to pay interim monthly maintenance until the results are out.

According to sources at the Bulawayo Magistrates Civil Courts of the six men who disputed maintenance claims brought to the court late last year when the court ordered paternity tests, four were found to have been looking after other people’s children.

The results are likely to raise concern that these cases could be just a tip of the iceberg with more men taking care of other people’s children as not many demand or can afford paternity tests.