By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Magistrate Dumisani Magagula was forced by circumstances and emerging evidence on Monday to reverse a child maintenance order against Mlungisi Vilane, after the latter produced DNA results substantiating that, the child he was ordered by the court to maintain “is not his”.

Vilane was taken to court by Lobesutfu Nkabindze who accused him of failing to maintain his child, there are possibilities that Lobesutfu knew the real father of the child but opted to abuse Vilane through the court processes.

Now,with men complaining that, some women forced them to maintain children that they never fathered, as a country, we must not ignore the plight or abuse that these men are subjected to.

Once we create a society dominated by angry men who are victims of abuse at the hands of women without access to justice, we will never win the war against Gender Based Violence(GBV).

It’s true that some women are victims of abuse but at the same time, some women are worse abusers,all cases must be treated with the same principle of eradicating abuse.

Forcing a man to maintain a child he never fathered for years is the worse form of abuse.

It’s easy to deal with such cases, we need a law that will allow Judges or Magistrates to demand evidence in a form of DNA results before issuing an order directing a man to maintain a child, both the man and the woman must contribute to the costs of the DNA.

It should be noted that, for now the courts only rely on testimonial evidence from the mother and with the current generation of women, some who sleep with different men, the rights of men are being violated because in the process, some are forced to maintain children fathered by other men.

In most instances,the mother knew the real father but opted to harass another man just to teach him a lesson.

This then undermines the fight against Gender Based Violence(GBV) because men are likely to revenge and we must avoid that by regulating the process of child maintenance.

We cannot have laws that protects women and then allow the same women to abuse men with impunity, the law and the courts must treat all citizens, regardless of gender, equally.

Judges and Magistrates must demand DNA as evidence before issuing an order directing a man to maintain a child,that order would be based on convincing evidence not the version of the mother who might lie before the court.

Perhaps, if the man denies being the father only for the DNA to prove that he is actually the father, the court is at liberty to order the man to pay or compensate the woman previous costs of maintaining the child.

Child maintenance is a civil case that is determined on the balance of probability principle when it comes of the level of evidence required, and even without such laws protecting men, Judges or Magistrates can use their discretion by issuing order directing the man and the woman to conduct a DNA test before the final maintenance order.

This is in line with the principles of fairness, a Judge or Magistrate must be convinced that, the man is the father before issuing an order not to trust a woman with the ability to lie before the court with impunity.

We might have a problem in this country if women are allowed to abuse men in this manner, we must be objective when eradicating Gender Based Violence(GBV), some women are victims of their own evil actions against men and we must condemn that.

As the media we have been publishing articles discouraging abuse against women but we have an equal obligation to defend and be the voice of men who are victims of abuse at the hands of women.