Masisi says a man named as father must care for the child
The president told a children's law workshop that a DNA test is the only way for a named man to avoid the duty of care.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi said again this week that if a woman says a man is the father, he is the father and must take care of the child. He made the remark at a workshop in Botswana convened by UNICEF and the Ministry of Child Welfare to overhaul the country's children's legislation.
Advocate Duma Boko, who spoke at the same workshop, explained the legal idea of a putative father: a man presumed to be the father until a DNA test proves otherwise. Boko said only such a test can release him from the duty of care, and that the presence of a father figure in a child's life remains essential.
The workshop followed a proposal raised in the House of Chiefs to make DNA testing compulsory. Boko warned that testing might reveal that some men who reject paternity have fathered many children they never acknowledged.
Why it mattersMen named as fathers in Botswana must provide care for the child unless a DNA test shows otherwise, according to the president.