Family conducts second DNA test in baby-swapping case
Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday December 21, 2016 10:03
The family sought the second deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test after the first paternity tests showed that the child’s DNA matches that of the mother.
About two weeks back, DNA experts from the Botswana Police Service (BPS) extracted blood samples from the corpse and the mother, Dineo Bentu at NRH.
NRH does not carry out DNA tests.
The results of the DNA test extracted from the child and Bentu later showed that the child, who is yet to be buried after passing away more than a month ago, was hers.
Speaking to Mmegi on Monday from NRH, where she was waiting for the second DNA samples to be extracted from her by a private DNA expert, Bentu said she would find closure and bury the child after the second DNA test showed that the child was hers.
Bentu said that her family does not trust government experts who conducted the first DNA test, hence the family has engaged a private DNA expert from a private clinic in Gaborone to conduct the DNA test.
She said that they are expecting the results of the DNA test today (Wednesday).
Initially, NRH told Bentu to pay for the DNA test if she wanted DNA test to be conducted on the corpse but the court later ordered NRH to settle the bill.
The family met last week Friday and resolved to seek a second medical opinion from a private DNA expert.
Bentu’s cousin Gift Keaitse who was also at NRH on Monday, said that they have engaged a private DNA expert at their own costs to conduct the second DNA test because they do not fully trust government’s experts.
“We suspect that government is hiding the truth from us because we are going to institute a legal suit against NRH because we suspect that the baby at NRH’s mortuary is not ours. There is a cloud hanging over the sex of the child since some documents produced in court and even the judgment shows that the child was at times referred to as a girl while others say a boy,” Keaitse said.
Bentu’s lawyer Martin Dingake confirmed that her client’s family has sought a second medical opinion from a private DNA expert to bring the matter to finality.
NRH was ordered by Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo to perform DNA test on the corpse and the applicant Bentu, who still insists that the corpse is not her child.
Narrating her harrowing ordeal after she gave birth at NRH, Bentu said that NRH told her that she prematurely gave birth to a girl through a caesarean operation, but later changed telling her that her dead baby was a boy, hence she went to court to force NRH to perform DNA test on the child so that she would be rest assured that the child NRH insists is hers is indeed her child.
Bentu said she could not remember what happened after she gave birth because she was sedated after giving birth.
She added that she was told that her the child was transferred to Bokamoso Private Hospital (BPH) where it later died adding that she was later called by NRH to come and claim the corpse from the hospital for burial.
The senior spokesperson at NRH Shirley Mukamambo neither confirmed nor denied that the Bentu family had engaged a private DNA expert to conduct a second DNA test.
Said Mukamambo: “I am constrained to comment on this matter because it is a private family matter. At this point, I cannot comment on the matter because it involves confidential family issues that are not for public consumption. I am advised to tell you to seek information directly from the concerned family if you want to know about the matter.”