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SHOCK statistics released by the Harare magistrates’ court this week revealing that a staggering 72 percent of men who disputed maintenance claims were exonerated from paternity by DNA tests make for sad reading.

The alarmingly high figure illustrates the moral decay inherent in our society today and enjoins Zimbabweans to take a reality check, examine what exactly is wrong with the country’s values, ethos, family and moral fibre. What makes the situation even dire is the fact that DNA tests are costly and time consuming and most men don’t take the liberty of pursuing that route when confronted with a paternity dispute — meaning that more innocent souls out there are taking care of children that don’t belong to them.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing is generally considered to be most accurate testing method available but it is out of reach of many ordinary Zimbabweans. A DNA test can indicate that a man is highly likely to be the father with about 99.9 percent accuracy or that he is excluded as being the father with 100 percent accuracy. But the tests are costly as they are done in South Africa and range between $470 and $520 for a man, woman and one child.

In 2013, 96 men applied to undergo DNA paternity tests, but nearly 50 abandoned their challenges after failing to raise the required fees. In the case of a paternity dispute, the courts refer the parties to the National Blood Transfusion Services of Zimbabwe where blood samples are taken and sent to a South African laboratory.

This facility covers paternity disputes in the entire country. Although the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo now has a DNA testing centre, it is yet to be utilised by the courts and police to resolve crime. On Tuesday, we published elsewhere on these pages, statistics released by the Harare civil courts which showed that the majority of men who challenged the paternity of children in the last six months discovered that they were raising other people’s children after DNA tests proved negative.

This was after they had forked out a lot of money in maintenance. Of 11 men who disputed maintenance claims brought before the court between January and June this year, eight were found to have been looking after other people’s children when the court ordered paternity tests.

The statistics have torched a storm and ignited widespread debate 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. They also revealed the deceit employed by some women who use children to extort money from innocent men when they know fully well that they would not have fathered their children. Such women are charlatans who defeat the whole fight for women’s empowerment.

Children should not be used as bargaining chips to snare men or as meal tickets for desperate women. There are genuine cases of maintenance out there and these deserve an audience before the courts but maintenance cheats who seek to use their children as tools to make money should be frowned upon by our courts of law.

The inconvenience to an innocent man dragged to court by a woman alleging that he sired her child is unwarranted. In a maintenance application the onus probandi (the burden of proof) is on the man to prove he is not the father of the child. For instance, if a man contests paternity, 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. If the tests are negative, the court cancels the maintenance order that compelled the man to support the children.

The man can then approach the courts and apply for the woman to re-reimburse him the money he would have paid as maintenance. The statistics provided by the Harare courts also showed that DNA tests for 66 percent of men who disputed maintenance claims the whole of last year were negative.

The situation was also in favour of men in 2013 where DNA tests ordered by the Harare Magistrates’ Civil Court revealed that 70 percent of them were raising children who were not theirs. This is astonishing. While we appreciate that in some of these cases, the women would be genuinely thinking the man is the father of their child (ren), the fact that another man could be responsible exposes their illicit sexual relations.

The high number of maintenance cases in the country is therefore symptomatic of the moral decay and break down of the family institution. There is just rampant immoral behaviour and extra-marital affairs giving rise to children out of wedlock. Our moral guardians — the churches, civil and other religious institutions have a lot of work on their hands to get this country back to normality.