A BULAWAYO magistrate has ordered a father to pay maintenance to his 20-year-old daughter in what is believed to be a landmark case.

Sikhanyisiwe Nkomo, a first year student at the University of Science and Technology, sued her father for child support for the duration of her three-year course.

A magistrate granted her the order sought, compelling her father Nkosana Nkomo to pay her US$800 per semester until she completes her studies.

Nkomo, who is divorced from Sikhanyisiwe’s mother, is now challenging the ruling which has serious implications for millions of fathers.

Child support in Zimbabwe typically ends when a child reaches the age of majority, which under the Legal Age of Majority Act is 18 years.

Zimbabwe assented to the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child and ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which guarantee a child’s “right to food, shelter, education and the best possible health care”.

Lawyers have said because education is neither free nor compulsory, a “right to education” is unenforceable. Typically, parents are assumed to have fulfilled their obligations when a child finishes high school and the majority age of 18.

The matter is now set to be argued at the High Court which will determine whether Nkomo is still obligated to support her daughter.

In a notice of appeal filed at the High Court this week, through the legal firm Mabhikwa, Hikwa and Nyathi Legal Practitioners, Nkomo argues that magistrate Ntombizodwa Mazhandu erred on a point of law when granting the maintenance claim.

Nkomo said in his affidavit: “I am not legally-obliged to maintain a major child. Sikhanyisiwe is over 18 years, and I believe the State assists tertiary education students. She has an alternative way of paying fees.

“I am not able to raise the money ordered by the court and I was not aware she has enrolled at NUST.”

Nkomo, while admitting to a “moral obligation to maintain her”, and insisting he “would have loved to do so as long as I earn an income”, argues that he has “no legal obligation to maintain my daughter" who was born on August 30, 1989.

In her claim lodged in January, Sikhanyisiwe Nkomo said of her father: “He has a responsibility to financially support me which responsibility he cannot abdicate from. I cannot postpone my attendance of college until the matter is finalised.”