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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutum,  Gwanda Correspondent
A GWANDA gold panner has refused to pay maintenance for his one-year-old child saying three other men that his ex-lover had dated were claiming paternity.

Mafios Mleya of Jessey Mine told a court that two other men from the same mining compound and Ms Terrence Sibanda’s ex-boyfriend were all claiming to be the father of her child.

Mleya, who appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Ms Nomagugu Ncube, said he wanted a paternity test before paying maintenance.

“I was staying together with the applicant at the mine compound when she fell pregnant. Whilst the pregnancy was still in its early stages, she fell in love with a man who stays in the same compound. She left me and went and stayed with this man,” said Mleya.

“After she gave birth another man from the compound demanded the child from the man that she was staying with. As a result they separated with the man that she was staying with. There is another man who was calling the applicant demanding the same child and when I asked, she said the man was her ex-boyfriend.”

Mleya said these developments had left him confused on whether the child was his or Ms Sibanda had slept with other men while they were staying together resulting in the pregnancy.

“At this moment I’m not sure whether she was impregnated by me or by another man. We might have been staying together when she fell pregnant but she could have been sleeping with other men. I want a paternity test in order to pay maintenance because I don’t want to be cheated into raising a child who isn’t mine,” he said.

In response, Ms Sibanda denied the claims of infidelity.

She said she fell in love with Mleya in 2016 and never had sexual intercourse with another man until they separated.

Ms Sibanda said Mleya had never contributed towards the child’s upkeep since he was born and he was using the paternity test as an excuse to evade paying maintenance.

She begged the court to grant her $100 for maintenance for the upkeep of her child.

Giving judgement on the matter, Ms Ncube ordered Mleya to pay $45 in maintenance each month after he said he could not afford $100 as he had a family. She advised both parties to go for a paternity test on or before October 30.—@DubeMatutu