‘Pay back the money’

Mthokozisi Ncube

WHAT would you do if you discover that a child you have been paying maintenance for is not yours?
A Dete man calculated the money he had been paying over seven years and demanded it back, to the last cent.

Clean Nyathi dragged Cynthia Dube to court and she was ordered to reimburse him US$2 500 after a DNA test showed that the child they supposedly had together, belonged to another man.

Nyathi told B-Metro he decided to go for a paternity test after Dube threatened to get him arrested for defaulting on payments.

Dube, now married to another man with whom she has two children, said she had been dealt a financial knockout because she had no means to raise the money that the court ordered her to pay within seven days.
Nyathi said: “This whole issue started in 2014 in Dete.”

“I always knew deep down that the child was not mine. That is why I pushed for a DNA test.”
According to him, Dube refused the test three times before finally agreeing.

“She kept refusing when I asked for DNA. That alone raised suspicion,” he said.

Eventually, he said, he paid about US$450 from his own pocket to settle the matter once and for all.
When the results came back, the gloves came off.

“I have been paying maintenance for years. It started at US$40, then US$50, then US$60. All that time, I was paying for a child that is not mine,” he complained.

Nyathi claimed Dube had other partners at the time, including a taxi driver, and believes the child could belong to someone else.

“She had many relationships. I am not the only one in the picture,” he said.

He even pointed out that Dube has six children with different men, a detail he believes adds more confusion than clarity.

Nyathi however, said he is not actively chasing the money, for now.

“If I don’t get it, I will eventually take it back to court,” he said.

Dube tells a different story, one filled with love, secrecy and emotional chaos.

She says she met Nyathi while already in another relationship, but love complicated everything.

“I met him while I was in a committed three-year relationship,” she said.

“He even sent my sister to convince me to leave my partner. We started seeing each other secretly.”

She claimed they met in hidden locations, sometimes pretending she was travelling to Bulawayo.

“I would meet him on the train or stay in hotels he booked for us,” she said.

Things allegedly changed when her first boyfriend discovered the affair and became violent, forcing her to move in with Nyathi.

By then, she said she was already pregnant.

 

“We lived like a married couple. But later, I realised he had other girlfriends. I also found medication in his wardrobe and thought he was ill,” she said.

The relationship later collapsed, leading to court battles over maintenance.

“I later moved out. My family refused the marriage because there was no proof his previous marriage had ended,” she said.

She insists she agreed to the DNA test, but delays stretched for years.

“When the results came, I was shocked. I even feared for my child growing up without a father,” she said.
Now ordered to pay back the money, she says her husband refuses to help.

“I did not steal anything from that man,” she said.

Behind the laughter and gossip, experts warn that paternity disputes are becoming more common.

A recent B-Metro investigation revealed a surge in DNA shockers, with Global DNA Zimbabwe reporting that 72 percent of tested men were not biological fathers (see this link: https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/men-beware-facial-features-can-lie-only-dna-tells-the-truth/), while the National University of Science and Technology’s Applied Genetics Testing Centre recorded 37 negative results out of 97 cases in 2025, roughly 40 percent.

The report warned that “facial features can lie, only DNA tells the truth,” as more men challenge paternity claims.