Francistown — A 30-year-old man who has been living at the Gerald Centre for Illegal Immigrants since 2006 is in search of his true identity as he says that the woman he knew to be his mother deserted him when he was picked up by the police in 2006.

Matthews English has now been a resident of the Centre for Illegal Immigrants for three years and has been trying to push the state to help with DNA tests to show that this woman is indeed his mother. English claims that he is the son of a woman named Nomathemba English,who is actually a royal wife in a village called Kgari in the North East District.

English wrote to the Clerk of court in August last year requesting the state to help him with the means to carry out the DNA test. "As from the time of my detention I have no means of how I can find the money to do the DNA test since I was put into the Centre for Illegal Immigrants, a place where illegal immigrants are bound," he stated in the letter.In the same letter he wrote that he had no way of rescuing himself because he could not find money to conduct the DNA test for himself and the respondent.

"There is no way I can rescue myself by finding money for the DNA test and nobody can assist me on that issue except for Nomathemba, the respondent. She has refused to assist in this matter, I therefore humbly request the court to assist me as I have now become a destitute," he stated in the document. On October 28, magistrate of Francistown, Fortune Mukoma ordered, in the presence of the respondent, that the applicant, English be assisted. "The applicant is directed to make an application,through the clerk of court, for assistance as a pauper to be able to go for a DNA test," read the order which continues to say the matter would not be set down until the issue on whether the state can assist the applicant with DNA testing has been concluded. In as affidavit that English wrote he stated that he had always known that he was the son to the respondent until he was arrested in 2006 for being an illegal immigrant when she deserted him. English writes that he was born in 1979, according to the information provided to him by the respondent.

"The situation dramatically changed when I was in the centre, I heard that, I am not part of the family and I was picked up from the bush in 1979. Nomathemba took all my property including my house in Kgari and I remained with my clothes that I was wearing when I entered the centre," he stated. He said that he grew up knowing that he was her son.

"She called me by the name Shepherd before English because I was feeding and looking after her flock and doing the services at home. It came to pass that in 1987 she took me to South Africa where she left me with her parents. I was serving them by doing all the house chores like sweeping and cooking because there were no children to help them," he wrote. He says about two years later the respondent picked him up from South Africa and he continued looking after her livestock. "We exchanged goodbyes with my grandparents in Soweto(Central Western Jabavu) house no. 289 and we came back to Botswana to continue looking after livestock," he stated.

English further writes that in 1990 his 'mother' took him to Francistown where she got him a job at Botswana Economic Development Unity (BEDU). "I was working there as a carpenter, staying with Nomathemba's friend in Monarch. I worked at BEDU for four years and she took P200 from my salary every month for four months saying that she is saving for me in the post office since I did not havean ID to invest my money," he wrote.He further said that later on after she left she used the money to build him a house where he could work since she advised him to quit the job at BEDU and be a carpenter.

"I was paid a lot of money at BEDU so managed to buy tools and open a carpentry workshop in Nomathemba's house. I made kitchen units, base beds, chest of drawers and chairs.

Nomathemba was very impressed with my work," he stated. He wrote that after some time Nomathemba built him a house with the money that she was saving for him from BEDU.

He says that they went to South Africa together in 1997 after his grandmother passed away after requesting that he wanted to see her graveyard. He says that in 2002 Nomathemba bought him a house in Kgari and told him to go and stay there and make his own family and he realized that the money she had been saving for him came in handy.

English says that he came back to Francistown in 2003 and rented a workshop in Area S where he bought tools for another workshop. He says that hell broke loose in 2005 when Nomathemba took him to National Registration to get him an ID."We were given a letter and in March 26,2006 I was confronted by the police who took me to Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants," he said.

At this point English is waiting for a miracle because he cannot afford the P3,200 that is required for the DNA test. He has tried asking for donations but cannot because he is in prison. The date for him and the respondent to do the test has not been set because he has no money.

English is convinced that he is Nomathemba's son because, according to him, he has a birth certificate and a passport that he was using to travel to South Africa but now he cannot find them since she has taken the house. Efforts to talk to Nomathemba failed as she is said to be in South Africa.