HARARE - A Harare-based information technology (IT) specialist who offered $10 as monthly maintenance for his two-month-old daughter is better off as a gardener, a Harare magistrate has said.

Harry Hudson, who is in his late 20s, told a Civil Court magistrate that he is currently living with his mother and $10 was all he could afford for the child.

“I am unemployed and I am currently living with my mother. $10 is enough because the baby is still being breastfed,” he said.

Hudson said he was doubtful of the paternity of the two-month-old child.

“I have been paying for the upkeep of our first child but the second one I doubt if she is mine,” he told the court. “I have been demanding to go for DNA tests to prove the child is mine and she has been refusing.”

When the magistrate asked how Hudson would finance the DNA tests when he was failing to pay for the upkeep of his child, the IT man said he would borrow money from his mother.

Hudson was reprimanded by the civil court magistrate, who ordered him to look for a job as a gardener to fend for his child.

“Respondent, I do not understand how a grown man like you would confidently say he will borrow money from his mother,” the magistrate said. “I suggest that you look for a job as a gardener to support your child. Being unemployed and living with your mother is not an excuse. Take responsibility.”

Sizwe Gumbo was demanding her estranged husband to pay $480 monthly for their second daughter.

Gumbo told the court that Hudson had moved out of his mother’s house and was living with a girlfriend in the Avenues area.

“He is staying with his current wife in the Avenues and I have proof to show this because that is where he was furnished with court papers.

"And he is employed as an IT specialist, this I was told by his own mother,” she said.

Hudson was given until the end of next month to go for a paternity test but will pay $50 maintenance in the interim.