Maintenance cheat ordered to repay $2 000

A WOMAN here has been ordered to repay $2 000 to a man who was paying her maintenance for the upkeep of her minor child after paternity tests proved the man was not the child’s biological father.

Calisto Chapungu of Triangle, last week heaved a sigh of relief after magistrate Mr Tafadzwa Mhlanga ordered Sabina Muwandi to reimburse him the money he paid for maintenance since 2016.

This was after paternity tests proved that Chapungu was not the father of Muwandi’s minor child.

Muwandi dragged Chapungu to court and was awarded $80 monthly maintenance, which she had been receiving for the past two years, after claiming the latter was her child’s father.

Chapungu turned the tables on Muwandi and successfully applied at the courts for paternity tests to be conducted after he denied fathering the child.

Mr Mhlanga ruled that Muwandi should pay back the money she received after falsely claiming Chapungu as her child’s father.

“Plaintiff (Chapungu) was paying maintenance for defendant in the sum of $80 for one minor child since 2016,” he said.

“Plaintiff was disputing that the child was his and went to undertake DNA tests and the results came out that the child was not his, hence the maintenance case has been discharged.”

Mr Mhlanga said Muwandi was supposed to pay back all the funds she received from Chapungu, who had to look after another man’s child for almost two years.

He also ordered her to foot the paternity test costs.