A child, DNA test, estate fight: court draws the line

At its core, the judgment reinforces a principle that often gets overlooked in estate battles, that suspicion is not evidence. In this case, Kebonang dismissed an application by a woman who wanted her late brother’s child to undergo a DNA test to prove paternity. Janet Kelibileone Phale attempted to anchor her claim on alleged private statements by her late brother, Samuel Khuto Same. But without corroboration, the court treated this as hearsay, legally weak, and insufficient to disrupt an established parent-child relationship.

Judge Zein Kebonang ruled recently that her claims were based on suspicion and that she had no legal standing to make such a demand. "The deceased himself never questioned the child's paternity. You have no right to interfere, let alone force a DNA test on a child," Kebonang said. The case was brought by Phale, the half-sister of the late Samuel Khuto Same, who died in 2024. She asked the court to order that a minor child, born in 2020, be subjected to DNA testing to confirm whether she was truly her brother’s biological daughter.