False positive

‘ DADDY’ WANTS TO SUE ‘ FISHY’ LAB

A JOBURG man who has been paying maintenance for the past two years for a child he was wrongly told was his, is seeking justice.

The 37-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child (5), is fed up with the police for refusing to help him open a fraud case against the molecular diagnostic services laboratory, which he wants to take to task for bungling his blood tests.

He says the same laboratory presented two sets of results, one declaring that there was a 99.99% possibility that he was the biological father of a five-year-old girl and later a negative result, which disputed paternity.

The man says he and his ex-lover, from whom he separated in 2009, had a verbal agreement in terms of which he agreed to pay R2 490 a month towards the child’s school fees.

But things changed when his ex-lover started demanding more money and accusing him of not doing enough for the child.

He says he applied for a protection order to stop her harassing and calling him, which was granted by the court.

The woman hit back and took the man to the Randburg Maintenance Court in February.

“We went to court towards the end of February, where I disputed paternity,” he says.

Blood tests were conducted in March this year.

The lab presented two different sets of tests in April, much to his horror.

The woman consequently dropped her maintenance claim.

“This whole thing has been emotionally draining for me. I’m trying to comprehend how someone can do such a terrible thing to me,” he says.

He believes something fishy is going on at that lab.

“I believe there is fraudulent activity taking place between some court officials and the lab.

“That is why results often come back positive in favour of women and this is what I want investigated,” he says.

In an attempt to try to recover his money, the man went to the Randburg Police Station to open a fraud case against the laboratory but the police failed to assist him.

They told him they could not open a case because his maintenance file had gone missing.

“You can imagine how I feel.

“This process has been really heartbreaking, especially because the child and I had bonded as father and daughter”.

He says all the police did was send him an SMS on May 14 informing him that his case had been assigned to a constable Gabaekangoe, who is yet to communicate, despite several attempts he made to see him at the police station.

But this week, police said the man’s claim had no criminal element and that he needed to lodge a civil claim at the court against the laboratory and not at the police station.

“Let him instruct a lawyer and sue the laboratory that provided him with the false kit,” says Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou.

But the man says the case is a criminal one and accuses the police of not doing enough to assist him.

chelemuk@sundayworld.co.za