The Child at the Centre of a Legal War

In a case that lays bare how acrimonious disputes can eclipse the very people they’re meant to protect, the Limpopo High Court has intervened with a simple, scientific directive: take a DNA test. The order aims to cut through a tangled web of denial, alleged evasion, and costly litigation surrounding a two-year-old girl caught between her warring parents.

The estranged husband, a legal practitioner, has staked his entire case on a biological impossibility. He contends he cannot be the father, presenting medical evidence of azoospermiaa complete absence of spermstemming from a past vasectomy. His wife, who claims they were in a customary marriage, maintains he is the biological father. With the couple also locked in a divorce battle over the validity of that marriage, the child’s paternity has become the explosive core of the conflict.

From Maintenance to a Warrant for Arrest

The dispute has had severe financial and legal consequences. A Children’s Court previously ordered the man to pay maintenance for both mother and child pending the divorce. After initially complying, he stopped. His wife successfully had him found in contempt, resulting in a suspended sentence.

Now, according to her lawyers, he is six months in arrears, owing R126,000. His failure to appear in court led to a warrant for his arrest, with his wife’s counsel branding him a “fugitive from justice.”

A Judge’s Frustration and the Path Forward

Acting Judge Burnett did not mince words, lamenting that the couple’s “thirst for litigation” had caused them to “lose sight of what is important, specifically the minor child.” He pointed out the tragic irony: “The parties probably could have paid for the minor child’s entire tertiary education with what they have spent on litigation thus far.”

The judge affirmed a prior order for DNA testing, emphasizing it was the child’s constitutional right to know her identity and to receive parental care. He noted there was no evidence the mother would suffer harm from the test, while the husband faced “irreparable harm” and professional ruina potential criminal record for maintenance evasion could end his legal careerif the uncertainty persisted.

“The outcome of the paternity of the child and marital dispute will potentially lead to the settlement of all the other outstanding pending matters,” the judge stated, framing the test as the only way to end the cycle of legal warfare.

The ruling is a blunt instrument for truth. It places a vial for a cheek swab above thousands of pages of legal argument, hoping that a single scientific result will finally refocus two adults on the little girl whose future has been held hostage by their dispute.

{Source: IOL}

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