Macheso paternity results never rigged

HARARE - Sungura artiste Alick Macheso's claims that the paternity tests were rigged are baseless, the National Blood Transfusion Service Zimbabwe (NBTSZ) said yesterday.

While acknowledging the musician's right to query the paternity tests in writing through his lawyers, NBTSZ insisted they handled the paternity tests in a professional manner.

"The paternity procedure carried out was done according to the set standard operating procedures to paternity testing," read a response to the musician's accusations.

In a June 24, 2014 letter penned by Macheso's lawyer Norman Mugiya to NBTSZ, the sungura kingpin claimed one of the directors at the institution was "Mapako" and alleged Tafadzwa had intercepted information which seems to suggest that she was communicating with NBTSZ for the period immediately before the tests and June 18, 2014.

"Our client was told that when the results are out they would be sent to his lawyers since it was him who had requested and paid for the process, but to his surprise, the results were also given to Mapako's lawyers after your offices actually phoned them," Mugiya's letter said.

"We do not know where you had gotten their contact details from since all correspondences were between Mugiya and Macharaga Law Chambers and your office.

"We have noted that the results were scanned and printed on June 12, 2014 at 11:44am yet the same results were made known to our client on June 19, 2014 and Mapako was already aware of results prior to them being made known to our client."

Macheso's lawyer accused the NBTSZ of keeping the results from June 12 until June 19.

"We doubt if the results were sent to South Africa on June 6 as indicated on the scanned copies," Macheso's lawyer said. "If our memories serve us well, the tests were done on June 4, 2014 and sent to South Africa on the same day yet the information at hand proves otherwise."

The NBTSZ advised Macheso to pursue the matter if he so wished.

"Macheso is also free to contact the South African lab directly as well as to seek a second opinion from any other reputable laboratory of his choice, local or abroad," said the NBTSZ statement.

"Those who allege that NBTSZ tampers with the result are disgruntled persons who expected different results. It is not possible for any member of staff to tamper with results.

"All procedures for collecting samples are transparent to the clients attending. If anyone has a case against NBTSZ they should feel free to challenge NBTSZ and the laboratory in South Africa that does the test. NBTSZ dismisses the allegations with the contempt it deserves."

The NBTSZ also denied that Macheso's ex-wife was a director at the institution.

"NBTSZ refutes allegations that Fortune Mapako is a director as alleged. She is not a director at NBTSZ neither is she involved in the service as a blood donor."

NSTBZ also refuted allegations that it had withheld Macheso's paternity results for a week.

"It is standard procedure for the South African laboratory to scan and email preliminary results and follow these up with a final result later.

"In this case the preliminary result was released on June 12 whilst the substantive report only became available on June 17, 2014. Therefore it is not correct that NBTSZ sat on the results for a week as only the confirmed results are released to the client and not the preliminary."