A cunning Madzibaba hatched an elaborate scheme to evade paying maintenance and obtained a second birth certificate for his daughter, using the names of his brother and second wife as her parents.
Following their divorce in 2013, Priscilla Mupfukudzwa (39) took Samuel Dhokotera (41) to court seeking an order to compel him to pay maintenance for their daughter Yvonne.
In response, Samuel obtained a second birth certificate for Yvonne, falsely naming his brother, Jeremiah, as the father and his second wife, Netsai Manzinde, as the mother. This cunning move aimed to deceive his employer, preventing any deductions from his salary for child maintenance.
Registrar General’s Office Harare (Image: NewZimbabwe.com)
As a result, Yvonne ended up with two birth certificates—one listing Samuel and Priscilla as parents and the other indicating Jeremiah as her father and Samuel’s second wife as her mother. The fraudulent birth certificate was acquired in Nyanga District.
Priscilla, the child’s mother, explained that she had left Samuel due to a history of abuse. She decided to seek maintenance for Yvonne after their separation. Samuel’s response was to obtain a second birth certificate to dodge financial responsibility.
“I regret ever marrying Samuel because of what I went through. When we split, I threatened to apply for maintenance and that is why he ended up acquiring a second birth certificate for our child. Samuel is gainfully employed at a renowned transport company and Jeremiah is self-employed. Samuel wanted to produce a birth certificate in Jeremiah’s name and his second wife’s name to prevent more money being deducted from his salary since Jeremiah is unemployed,” she said.
Jeremiah vehemently denied any involvement in Samuel’s scheme, stating that he never accompanied Samuel to the Registrar’s Office and believed that his identity document had been stolen.
“I never accompanied Samuel to the Registrar’s Office. He must have stolen my identity document,” said Jeremiah.
Samuel admitted that Yvonne was his daughter but directed all inquiries to Jeremiah, saying,
“Yvonne is my child. As for the other birth certificate, you better ask Jeremiah.”
Both Samuel and Jeremiah are congregants of the Johanne Marange sect, which strongly discourages its members from taking each other to court.
Source iHarare.com
