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MP, BABY MAMA IN CHILD SUPPORT BATTLE

21/11/2020 13:54:00 BY Bonsile Makhubu

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MBABANE – Sithobela Member of Parliament Bambitje Dlamini is accused of inconsistency when it comes to maintaining his son.

Dlamini, who is also a pastor, has a 10-year-old son with a woman who now works and lives in the neighbouring Republic of South Africa together with the son.

The woman is Swati and originates from Mbekelweni in the Manzini Region.

She accuses Dlamini of not living up to expectation and of making excuses of not having money most of the time when she asks him to make his contribution.

She claims that Dlamini often tells her that he cannot send her money monthly and that she should just be grateful the day he eventually sends it.

“The fact that child maintenance is a daily thing doesn’t make any sense to him. I only asked him to contribute towards the child’s school needs while I took care of all the other needs and he agreed but now he does not do it,” said the baby mama.

She also alleges that Dlamini makes empty promises, something that hurts the child a lot.

“Of late he has been telling me that he doesn’t have money and cannot afford to pay for the education of the child, which is just fees and transport money amounting to approximately E1 500,” she alleged.

Responsible

The woman says she is responsible for the child’s food and clothing and is only asking for Dlamini to meet her halfway with school fees and transport.

She says at some point she was made to solely provide for the child for a long time when Dlamini was unemployed.

“When he left the mines where he worked and returned to Eswatini I took care of the child on my own. However, when he was elected into Parliament I expected him to own up because he is now earning a salary on a monthly basis,” she said.

She said the past couple of years had been marked by skipping of months and late contributions that would come after she would nag Dlamini for months.

Jobless

“He has not been playing his part for a long time, claiming he was jobless even though he could make ends meet. So now he is an MP but he skips months and tells me he has nothing,” the woman stated.

The woman, who is also instituting legal action against Dlamini, alleged that sometimes he insulted her when she asked for the child’s maintenance.

“He is a pastor of a Zion church, but he blurts out insults like a person who has never heard of Christianity,” she further alleged.

She said even though she never stayed with Dlamini, while he was in South Africa he would maintain his child because she would pay him visits.

This newspaper is in possession of highly-charged communication between the two where the woman was asking Dlamini to pay maintenance as he had defaulted for some months.

Disturbing

Dlamini apparently responded by referring to her as a demon, adding that she was disturbing him as he was attending a church service.

During a most recent conversation on November 1, 2020, Dlamini stated clearly that he was not prepared to deposit any money for the child’s maintenance.

When responding to another demand for money, he wrote: “My money got finished. I am still trying to borrow some from a stokvel.”

The woman, on the other hand, had written: “It’s best that you do right than picking an unnecessary fight simply because you want to get away with your intentions of not taking responsibility. Remember you always did this and I always took it upon me to do everything alone but not anymore.”

In an audio conversation that took place on Monday, which the MP shared with this reporter, the woman is heard accusing him of insulting her by using a word that cannot be printed due to its insultive nature.

Withdrew

The MP eventually withdrew the insult.

MP Dlamini confirmed knowledge of the child and his mother.

He denied though that there were any issues around the child’s maintenance.

“I pay E1 000 towards the child’s maintenance every month. Out of all my children he gets the highest amount,” he told Eswatini News.

Dlamini wondered what could have triggered such allegations and said he suspected that his baby mama was out to tarnish his image as a Member of Parliament.