Priscilla Misihairambwi blasts inheritance laws

Zimbabwe’s Regional Integration Minister Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga told reporters on Tuesday she felt let down by the legal system in a property dispute following the death of her husband, Dr. Christopher Mushonga. 

Mushonga, also deputy secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, said she has decided to leave all of the property she jointly held with her husband to her in-laws. Dr. Mushonga died in August 2009 of injuries sustained in an attack on their home the previous June. 

The late Dr Mushonga

Mushonga said a legal wrangle with her in-laws over the property took an ugly turn in recent weeks, with her husband’s former employees and her brother targeted for abduction and harassment by state agents in unmarked vehicles. 

In an interview following the news conference, Mushonga told VOA reporter Sithandekile Mhlanga that she had been continuously harassed by her in-laws but despite being represented by the prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa found that she could not rely on the Zimbabwean legal system to protect her rights. 

Among the properties in dispute she has relinquished include their Mount Pleasant House, a flat in the Avenues area, their funds in joint local and foreign accounts and a number of vehicles. 

Mushonga’s estate has been surrounded by court battles with the Master of the High Court intervening last year and ruling that the last Will written by the late orthopedic surgeon overrode an earlier one, which the children suspected to have been flawed. 

This was after two Wills had been presented, one written by the couple in October 2005 and the other by Mushonga alone in October 2008. 

The minister and the nine children — Munemo, Tawengwa, Sekai, Nyarai, Ndambi, Musodzi, Pfumojena, Takudzwa and Hazviperi Oprah as well as their uncle Zacharias Mushonga — are embroiled in a court battle over the ownership of the Mount Pleasant home situated at Number 2 Crackley Lane. – VOA & other agencies 

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