The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Correspondent
A MARRIED Nyanga 75-year-old man stands accused of siring a child out of wedlock and keeping the secret closely guarded for almost 25 years.
However, Steven Makoni is challenging Maria Mudondo’s claim that he fathered her 25-year-old daughter saying that she was married to someone else during the time she conceived.
The couple recently appeared before Acting Chief Saunyama.
Mudondo, who is also in her 70s, claims that she had an affair with Makoni 25 years ago at a time when both of them were married to other people.
She says the affair resulted in her giving birth to a baby girl.
The lovebirds had previously dated while they were still in school in the 1960s.
They then parted ways and married other people, only to meet 25 years later and rekindling their long lost love.
“This woman is a liar. She is claiming that I fathered her child over 20 years ago. I do not know that. What took her that long to announce that I fathered her child? Everything sounds suspicious.
“All I know is that we dated when we were still in school back in the 1960s and we parted ways during the liberation struggle. She married someone else and I married my wife who is here with me today. We met again after the war and we rekindled our love behind our spouses’ backs, but I honestly do not believe that I got her pregnant. If I had done so, she would have told me then,” said the elderly man.
He demanded a DNA test and said if the child turns out to be his, he will accept her as his daughter.
“Why is the child not here today to meet her supposed father if indeed she is mine? These are all lies. She wants to take advantage of my memory loss challenges. What I can still recall is that no child was conceived during the duration of our affair,” charged an angry Makoni whose wife kept nodding in support of her husband.
Mudondo, however, insisted that Makoni is her daughter’s father.
“When I met Makoni in the 1990s, we rekindled our love as I was still madly in love with him. I believe he was also head over heels in love with me. I vividly recall that when I fell pregnant during the time of our romance I was not being intimate with my husband.
“I was only intimate with Makoni. That is how I know that he is the father of this girl. It is not like we want money or anything from him, we just want him to acknowledge his daughter so that this does not cause any future problems,” said the elderly woman.
Acting Chief Saunyama adjourned the matter to February 11 to allow Mudondo’s South Africa-based daughter to come for some DNA tests with Makoni.
Makoni’s wife and daughter verbally attacked Mudondo as they left the court, accusing her of lying and seeking to take advantage of the old man.
