Doctor demands R2.7m from side chick after paying maintenance for another man’s child for 11 years

File photo: 'On December 19 2022, and through DNA profiling carried out on me and the minor child, the profile results conclusively excluded me as being the biological father of the child’. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

File photo: 'On December 19 2022, and through DNA profiling carried out on me and the minor child, the profile results conclusively excluded me as being the biological father of the child’. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

Published Feb 6, 2023

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A Zimbabwean man has sued his former side chick in the High Court, demanding that she pay back the $163 000 (approximately R2.7-million) he paid in maintenance over an 11-year period.

The man was shocked when he learned that he had been supporting another man’s child for 11 years through maintenance payments.

Dr Roger Kruger Hendrick Chigangacha, a prominent pathologist based in Bulawayo, filed the lawsuit after calculating all the money he had paid in child support over the past 11 years.

Dr Chigangacha is suing his former lover, Natasha Popova Sibanda, for falsely claiming maintenance from him after lying that he was the father of her child.

According to Dr Chigangacha, he had an extramarital relationship with Sibanda From 2011 to June 2012.

During this time, the two indulged in intercourse, and the baby was born to Sibanda on May 20, 2012.

According to lifestyle tabloid B-Metro, in his summons filed at the High Court, Dr Chigangacha said, “On December 19 2022, and through DNA profiling carried out on me and the minor child, the profile results conclusively excluded me as being the biological father of the child.

“It was reasonably foreseeable or ought to have been foreseen by the defendant that her promiscuous behaviour at the time of conception would have resulted in me being falsely imputed fatherhood of the child.”

The doctor argued that his former lover, Sibanda, deceitfully passed off her daughter as his.

“By reason of the defendant’s conduct, I acted on her misrepresentation and paid for all the educational requirements of the child up to December 31, 2022,” he claimed in court documents.

“I have also expended some money in respect of travels and costs towards the general welfare and upkeep of the minor child.”

He is requesting that the High Court order Sibanda to pay him $100 000 (about R1.7-million) for her false and dishonest attribution of the child’s paternity to him.

Additionally, he requested that the court order the former actress to pay back the child’s upkeep bills, incidental expenditures, and extra damages in the amount of $63 000 (R1-million).