..as govt asks for time to find relevant ministry to address the issue
TEFO PHEAGE Ntlo Ya Dikgosi
A controversial Upper House motion calling on the government to formulate a policy to make it compulsory for a paternity test to be conducted on every baby at birth has been deferred for time to find the right ministry for the issue.
According to Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, there is a need to avoid frequent court cases over paternity.
The Chairman of Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, Kgosi Puso Gaborone of BaTlokwa, told his fellow magosi that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Dr Temba Mmusi, had informed him that they were still addressing some issues around the motion, chief among being finding the relevant ministry for it.
The issue cuts across various ministries, namely the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs and Ministry of Health and Wellness.
“They have requested for some time to assist us and the best we can do is to defer the motion until further notice or to a later date,” Kgosi Gaborone said in the Upper House.
The motion has sparked debate on social media and attracted the attention of different interest groups.
Paternity fraud generally occurs when the mother of a child tells a man that he is the biological father of her child when he is not or may not be. Experts attribute this conduct to various reasons, including capitalist considerations for child support, concealment of infidelity and mistaken identity arising from infidelity.
Many unconvinced men often approach the courts or run DNA tests to settle the matter. A DNA paternity test comes at a hefty cost of approximately P3,500 for the child and the man and the woman involved. The results normally come after 10 working days.