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Lethokuhle Moyo Court Reporter
TWO teenage brothers aged 17 and 15 from Bulawayo have dragged their father to the Maintenance Court after he abandoned them at a house they rent.
The two boys were demanding $180 as maintenance from their father. The teenagers told magistrate Sheunesu Matova that their father is a bus driver. He did not attend the hearing.

Magistrate Matova passed a default judgment ordering him to pay $140 per month.

The 17-year-old boy told the court that their mother deserted them when he was 14. He said he has since heard that she was now married to another man.

He said: “The money that we’re asking for is to enable us to pay our school fees as we owe the school outstanding fees. We also need to buy food and clothing.

“My father has been staying with us all along but at times sleeps at work. He’s a bus driver but we don’t know how much he earns. He only took off just two months back saying he was going to work and has never slept at home ever since. We don’t know where he stays and we’ve been planning to go to the rural areas to live with our grandmother in Nkayi.”

The boy said their father returned home once and told them he had paid rent to the landlord and left a few groceries.

“We’ve even gone to the bus terminus to ask for money for our upkeep but he gives us little money. He tells us that he’ll come home but he never does,” he said.

The teenager added that their landlord is the one who sometimes gives them food.

He said their landlord was the one who advised them to approach the courts for maintenance.