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5 WIVES, 37 CHILDREN, ONE BENEFICIARY

10/04/2024 15:12:00 Sabelo Majola

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MBABANE – In an astonishing turn of events, a businessman left four of his five wives and over 30 children in agony after making one of his sons the sole heir and beneficiary to his estate worth millions.

Joseph Khalalemphi Mndzebele died in November 2007, and his estate is still subject to liquidation and distribution. He had two plots situated in Manzini, two shops located at Lobamba Lomdzala, two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Toyota vans and two tractors, among other things he owned. All these items form part of the deceased’s inventory and they were all given to his son Makhosahlangene Makhalane Mndzebele, as the sole heir to his properties as communicated in a Will that was drafted in 1998.

Validity

The Will, whose validity was tested in court, was initially drafted in 1993, but at the time, the deceased was not married to one of his five wives and it had to be amended in 1998, to accommodate her. This was the information shared by the late businessman’s two sons, Mbuso and Gabi Mndzebele, who appeared before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the operations of the Master’s Office. The two are also brothers to well-known Zimbabwe-based Human Rights Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the Board Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. They declared before the commission that at some point, they went to her for an opinion, given that she was well versed in legal issues. Gabi told the commission that it was very astonishing and shocking at the same time that their father, who was fond of all his wives and taking care of them equally, could leave them with absolutely nothing when he passed on.

He described his father as a humble man who did not hold any grudges, but believed in solving disputes amicably. “It is on that basis that we were left in disbelief after learning that my father’s Will did not communicate anything about allocating his properties fairly among his wives but left everything to a sole heir, not when he cared about his wives this much,” he said. Gabi submitted that what boggled the mind was that his father died at a time when the Constitution had come into effect and being somebody who wasn’t ignorant of the law, there was no way he could have disregarded Section 34 of the Supreme Law of the land. Section 34 of the Constitution depicts that a surviving spouse is entitled to a reasonable provision out of the estate of the other spouse whether the other spouse died having made a valid Will or not and whether the spouses were married by civil or customary rites. Gabi revealed that his father’s spouses, except for the mother of the sole heir, were not having it easy in life. He submitted that sometimes they were compelled to give financial aid to their father’s spouses because they struggled to make ends meet.

Commission

Mbuso revealed to the commission that at some point, his father was denied access to his vehicles, because there was an assumption that he was attracting women when driving. He narrated that he offered his father one of his vehicles but his father told him that it would not be a good idea to drive the vehicle without having purchased it from him and officially make it his own. He shared that he had to sell the vehicle to his father, at a low value of E20 000, so that he could transfer its ownership to him. “This was a highly valued vehicle, but I had to compromise because I could not stand watching my father walk while I was driving. However, it didn’t end well as the same vehicle was tampered with and it developed mechanical faults and ended up idle at home,” he shared.

Assistant Master at the Manzini Office, Ziphozonke Fakudze, confirmed the Will which bequeathed all the deceased’s belongings to his son and appointed one of the surviving spouses, Siphiwe Patricia Mndzebele as the executor. She revealed that valuation reports of the properties were submitted. She also told the commission that on May 8, 2014, they received a notice of motion where the applicant, Phuzukuvela Mndzebele, wanted to have the executor removed, because the estate had not been wound up seven years after the demise of the businessman.
On December 15, 2014, the Office of the Master also received another notice of motion from one of the spouses, Reginah Mndzebele represented by Mbuso Simelane Attorneys, an application to have the Will declared null and void as it violated Section 21 (4) and Section 34 of the Constitution. Section 21 (4) depicts that where a person is tried for any criminal offence, the accused person or person authorised by the accused person shall, if the accused person or person authorised by the accused person so requires and subject to payment of such reasonable fee as may be prescribed by law, be given within a reasonable time after judgment a copy for the use of the accused person of any record of the proceedings made by or on behalf of the court.

Declared

It also declared Section 125 of the Administration Act unconstitutional as it violated Sections 21 and 34 of the Constitution and the prayer was to have the fourth respondent, the sole heir, be restrained from collecting rentals from Makhomba Supermarket, which is one of the deceased’s businesses. She said that as far as the Office of the Master was concerned, these matters were still pending in court. However, the Mndzebele brothers gave clarity that the matters had been finalised in court and were no longer pending. Having declared that they doubted the validity of the Will, the commission advised the Mndzebele brothers to take the matter to court, with the Chairman of the commission, Judge Majahenkhaba Dlamini, revealing that they had a strong case given that the Will was effective from the death of the deceased, which was after the Constitution had come to effect. It should be noted that the country’s Constitution came into effect in 2005.