DNA tests expose cheating wife

A Mutare man found out that he was not the father of the boy he has been calling his son for the past two years, thanks to the WhatsApp text which circulated in October last year which exposed his wife's alleged promiscuity leading to the couple taking paternity tests.

This was revealed during a court session in which Kudzai Masara (26) is seeking nullification of the young boy's birth certificate.

The case, in which Masara is accusing his ex-wife Rutendo Chinyati (22) of wilfully giving false information to the registrar's office for birth registration, appeared before Mutare magistrate Miss Venencia Mugota on Monday.

The court heard that Chinyati registered the child under the Masara name when she knew very well that the child did not belong to him.

Masara told the court that he got wind of his wife's promiscuity through a WhatsApp message which circulated late last year and listed the Top ten prostitutes in Mutare.

Part of the message read: "Patience and Takunda Chinyati - Aya mahure enzara nzara . . . anodazvese zvese . . ."

He told the court that this message led Masara and his family to push for tests to ascertain paternity of the boy.

Sometime in December last year, the duo, in the company of Kudzai's sister, Rumbidzai, went to Lancet Laboratories in Harare where the tests were done. The court heard that the results came back after four weeks, revealing that the young boy was not Masara's child.

This was confirmed by Doctor Eric Sidile.

"I was married to Rutendo and a child was born in 2013. The problem started when I received an anonymous message on my phone, telling me that Anesu was not my child.

"All along I thought the child was mine and we had already got a birth certificate. I decided to have paternity tests so that I would know the truth and we went for the tests in December, together with my sister.

"The results came back slightly after a month and I was told that the child was not mine," explained Masara.

Testifying in her defence, Chinyati insisted that the child was Masara's, arguing that had he not been the father, she would not have consented to the paternity test in the first place.

"The child is Kudzai's. If I had anything to hide, I would not have agreed to have the tests done. The other thing is that Kudzai is the only man I have known. He deflowered me when I was still a student in school and he later came to pay lobola for me, after which we had a baby.

"When we went to get the child's birth certificate, we were together and we were in agreement.

"That alone should be enough evidence to show that the child is his. I want a re-test because when we went to collect the paternity results, the envelope was not sealed. There was no stamp or anything on the papers.

"I want the State to provide a doctor who will explain the results to me because they were not satisfactory to me.

"He (Masara) is also saying that the message mentioned my name, but it did not. The message said Patience and Takunda Chinyati and my name is not Takunda. In actual fact, Takunda is my brother," said Chinyati.

Masara, however, denied having deflowered Chinyati saying when he married her she was not a virgin, adding that when they were given the paternity results, the envelope was sealed.

"Of course I consented to registering the child in my name because I thought he was mine. I only found out the truth after the paternity results came out. We got our results in a sealed envelope and not even the nurses present read those results," he said.

Mr Brian Goto prosecuted.