PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Parks Mankahlana will know in six to eight weeks if he is the father of an eight-year-old boy who lives in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. Mankahlana, the boy and his mother had blood drawn for a paternity test at pathologists Du Buisson & Partners in Nelspruit on Monday morning. Pathologist Dr David Toerien confirmed that all three parties were present for the 15-minute procedure at 10am. Dr Toerien said the results of the test would be known in six to eight weeks. Mankahlana demanded the paternity test when the child’s mother, Thalita Mthethwa, filed for maintenance in the KaBokweni Maintenance Court last month. The test was initially scheduled for July 10, but it was postponed because Mankahlana had to accompany President Thabo Mbeki on an international state visit. Mthethwa, a teacher, claims she and Mankahlana lived together for two years in KaNyamazane near Nelspruit before Mankahlana moved to Johannesburg in 1990. She says they continued to see each other after Mankahlana moved and she had no qualms about conducting the test. “My kid deserves to know who his father is,” she explains. Meanwhile, Mankahlana settled a second paternity suit against him by another Nelspruit woman two weeks ago. He was due to appear in the Nelspruit Maintenance Court on July 25 after EC Wallace, the mother of his 11-year-old daughter, demanded that he increase his monthly maintenance payments of R400 to R700. His attorney, Moroampholo Tsoka, said an undisclosed out-of-court settlement had been reached and Wallace withdrew the case. Tsoka said the child currently lived with Mankahlana in Pretoria.