A Uitenhage man can finally be cremated after a nasty, short-lived legal battle over the paternity of his former girlfriend's love child delayed his final farewell for a few weeks.

His family blamed her for “having been responsible for his death,” according to papers before court.

After an urgent application earlier this month the Port Elizabeth High Court provisionally halted the cremation of the man whose name is not published to protect the child.

The order, with the assistance of the Port Elizabeth Justice Centre, was obtained after he had died.

In papers before court his former girlfriend explained that she had been in an intimate relationship with the man, who was 56, since she was a teenager.

They also lived together at one stage.

She has a child and claims that he is the father.

The couple however went their separate ways before the man’s death.

According to papers before court the woman was in the process of sorting out confirmation that it was the man’s child when he died.

She asked the court to order Bossie’s Executive Funeral Home to halt the cremation of the man pending the collection of samples to be used in a DNA test.

She said she wants official confirmation that the child was his so that she could put in a claim for maintenance for the child from his estate.

By yesterday the two families had, however, settle their differences and the woman withdrew the action for a permanent interdict.

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