HARARE – A paternity TV show could be giving couples fake DNA test results, a regulator cautioned on Friday.

The ‘Closure DNA Show’ on ZBC, hosted by Tinashe Mugabe, says it helps couples settle any doubts about the paternity of their children, but the Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Council of Zimbabwe (MLCSCZ) has questioned the credibility of the results.

The MLCSCZ says Mugabe, who has a company called Global DNA Zimbabwe, is offering “unscientifically substantiated percentage paternity tests.”

Another such show, Expedite DNA hosted by Tilda Moyo, also came in for criticism.

The regulator said in a statement: “Tinashe Mugabe and Jane (Tilda Moyo) are not professionally qualified nor competent to issue those test results. Therefore, the MLCSCZ condemns such unethical practice on the poor and the marginalised population by Global DNA Zimbabwe and Expedite DNA Zimbabwe.

“The MLCSCZ urges the Zimbabwean population not to be coerced into receiving paternity results in such an unprofessional manner,”

Mugabe and Moyo’s shows often see fathers being informed that children they raised as their own were in fact not theirs. Some men have dumped their wives on the shows after failing to stomach their infidelity.

The MLCSCZ said Mugabe and Moyo’s companies were registered with the council as collection sites, and not testing centres.

“According to the Health Professions Act, a medical laboratory test is requested by qualified and registered clinicians. Upon successful completion of the testing process, the test results are sent back to the requesting clinicians who are qualified to advise patients and clients ethical manner,” the MLCSCZ explained.

“Professional codes of conduct of various health professionals in Zimbabwe clearly states that divulging either orally or in writing, any information concerning a patient/client test result ought not to be divulged to third parties except where so required by law.”

In a statement, Global DNA Zimbabwe insisted that it was “an upstanding and ethical business” operating “within the legal parameters of Zimbabwean law.”

“We also would like to take this time to reassure all our clients of the legality and accuracy of obtained DNA results,” the company said.

Mugabe is not new to controversy. In 2019, he caused an Australian journalist to be arrested in Harare. The journalist had been investigating apparently fake DNA test results which saw a Zimbabwean woman adopted by a family in Australia return home to search for her mother.

Mugabe, it was alleged, gave the woman false DNA test results identifying a Harare woman as her mother, before a second test exposed the lie.