Mothers on trial: DNA testing, sexual regulation and maternal accountability in Zimbabwe

This article examines how public discourse around The Closure DNA Show constructs and moralises understandings of motherhood in the context of publicly disclosed paternity exclusion in Zimbabwe. Using qualitative analysis of first level YouTube comments posted in response to episodes in which men are excluded as biological fathers, the study explores how viewers interpret maternal credibility, sexual responsibility and reproductive obligation. Audience commentary rarely frames misattributed paternity as uncertainty or relational complexity, instead interpreting it as deception, moral failure and sexual irresponsibility. Three interlinked discursive patterns dominate: the moral regulation of female sexuality; presumptions of maternal certainty that deny reproductive ambiguity; and child-centred moral claims that consolidate gendered accountability. These discourses recast motherhood as a moral status open to public scrutiny, with biological truth serving as the central criterion of maternal legitimacy. The study demonstrates how mediated DNA testing functions as a technology of moral evaluation through which motherhood, sexuality and responsibility are collectively governed in contemporary Zimbabwe.