$6 000 maintenance for unborn child

24 Dec, 2020 - 11:12 0 Views
$6 000 maintenance for unborn child The man is also being charged with perjury

The ManicaPost

Tendai Gukutikwa

Weekender Correspondent

A SIX-MONTH-OLD pregnant woman shocked the court last week when she claimed to be starving and begged the court to order her baby-daddy to buy her food and maintain the unborn child.

Rudo Chimbetete appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mr Lazarus Murendo last Thursday where she had dragged her boyfriend, Samson Mutore, accusing him of neglecting her.

Chimbetete said she wanted a lot of food as her pregnancy craved for a variety of foodstuffs, yet Mutore is failing to deliver.

She was claiming $6 000 for the unborn child.

“I am starving, yet I am carrying his child. He should be responsible and give me that money so that I can buy the food that I want. 

‘‘I need money for groceries. I am having an unsustainable appetite. My unborn child craves for a lot of food, yet this man is failing to provide. All he cared about was to impregnate me and now he does not want to carry his cross,” she complained.

“My brother buys me food most of the times because Mutore does not care. It is not fair that my family takes care of me when the person who impregnated me is squandering his salary on other things. He has now completely turned his back on me, but I know that when I give birth, he will come back claiming that he loves his child. Is it not fair that he takes responsibility now by buying me food Your Worship?” she asked.

The court queried some of Chimbetete’s claims for the unborn baby that included shoe polish and adult clothes.

 “I am getting bigger and cannot fit in my old clothes. All this is because of the pregnancy. I also need money to buy clothes for the baby and for antenatal care. He should provide everything because it is his baby that I am carrying,” she told the court.

Mutore dismissed Chimbetete’s claims and said he is going out of his way to ensure that she is well taken care of.

Chimbetete’s maintenance application was, however, struck off the roll until she gives birth. 

Mr Murendo told her that it is against the law to apply for maintenance for an unborn child. 

He, however, advised her to make a lying in expense application.

“I am not dismissing your application. Rather, I am removing it from the roll until you give birth because you cannot claim maintenance for a child that is not yet there. For the time being, however, you can make a lying in expenses application and he will be ordered to take care of you during your state,” said Mr Murendo.

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