Two women sue their father for maintenance

TWO daughters, Nothando and Sehlule, aged 22 and 19 respectively, yesterday filed for maintenance against their father, Benjamin Ndlovu, whom they accuse of neglecting them.

The two are said to be pursuing tertiary education at local institutions.

Appearing before magistrate Victor Mpofu, Ndlovu however, said he would have none of it and alleged that the eldest daughter was not his biological child.

He said when he got married to Nothando's mother the girl was already nine months old.
"I took their mother as my wife when Nothando was nine months old," Ndlovu told the court.  Earlier she had tried to give the pregnancy to two other men who refused her. A third man, who is my neighbour accepted it and is the father to this girl but never stayed with her. I loved her mother that is why I took them both."

Ndlovu said he was prepared to pay any amount for Sehlule and disowned Nothando.
He said: "I can pay up to $1,000 for the younger one not this one (Nothando). I have taken care of all their needs all from childhood. I want to buy them shoes when I leave this place."

Ndlovu left the court in stitches when Mpofu asked why he had taken care of the girl knowing fully well that she was not his child including having a birth certificate in his name. "Thina singamaNyasaranda, kithi ungagamula isihlahla uthatha lamahlamvu aso (I am a Malawian, in our culture, if you chop a tree you take the leaves as well)," he said while demonstrating the process of chopping down a tree to raucous laughter.

Ndlovu said Nothando looked similar to her father and her grandparents adding that her father's family treated her like their own.
He went on to say Nothando knew that he was not her father. "Your majesty, your honour she has a diary where she wrote that I am not her father," Ndlovu said.

He went on talking until Mpofu asked him if he was normal to which he replied that he had a university degree qualification.
Ndlovu said he did not earn much as he only got $350 after three or four months at a local non-governmental organisation compared to Nothando's father whom he said earned a decent living.

"Your worship, her real father drives haulage trucks and owns cattle, so I am supposed to suffer because I took her in, even though she is not mine. Is that a crime?" he asked.

Ndlovu also said he wanted to call a meeting with all the family members who can witness that the girl is not his and then afterwards take the magistrate to court for making him pay maintenance for a child who is not his.

Asked who her father was, Nothando said Ndlovu was her father. "This is the father I know, the one I was shown and grew up with," she said.

Magistrate Mpofu said it was unfortunate that Ndlovu's Nyasaranda tradition would now make him pay maintenance for Nothando since the birth certificate said he was the father.

He also asked Ndlovu why it had taken him 22 years to reject the child. Mpofu ordered Ndlovu to pay $75 per month for both his daughters.