By Daniel Nemukuyu
Former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s family has failed to agree on an executor, it has emerged. This has resulted in two lawyers being appointed to jointly assist in the distribution of the estate.
Two camps have emerged resulting in Mr Tsvangirai’s widow, Ms Elizabeth Macheka, and two of the late politician’s children calling for the appointment of Mr Innocent Chagonda of Atherstone & Cook as executor to the estate.
The rest of the children and relatives want Mr Charles Maunga of Maunga & Associates.
An officer at the Master of High Court’s office, who convened the edict meeting last week, later resolved to appoint both lawyers as joint executors.
The decision puts to an end the dispute pitting the family members.
The executors, according to the law, have the duty to investigate the correctness of the inventory filed on registration of the estate.
They will identify and account for all the property that could have been left out in the initial inventory.
The Tsvangirai family recently wrote to the Master of High Court Mr Eldard Mutasa challenging the legality of Ms Macheka’s marriage to the late politician.
They accused her of fraudulently leaving out five houses, a farm and 17 vehicles in the inventory of properties.
The family members contend that Ms Macheka deliberately under-declared the properties left behind by the late politician.
Soon after burial, Ms Macheka registered the estate and indicated that she was the only surviving spouse.
She went on to declare one house in Strathaven, Harare, as the only immovable property that the late politician owned.
Ms Macheka listed six vehicles, 45 cattle in Kwekwe and others in Buhera as the only movable property forming the estate.
The family, through its lawyers, informed the Master of High Court that the following immovable properties were fraudulently left out by Ms Macheka: Highlands house, Borrowdale house, Philadelphia house, Number 16 Kent Road and a farm in Mazowe.
The following vehicles, according to the relatives were also left out on the inventory: three Mercedes-Benz vehicles, a Range Rover, Nissan Navara, three Toyota Prado vehicles, a Toyota Vitz, a Toyota Hilux, five Isuzu trucks, a BMW X5 (at Gwanda Police Station) and a Toyota Land Cruiser (at CMED).
Mr Tsvangirai died at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, South Africa, on February 14 after battling cancer of the colon.
He was accorded a State-assisted funeral and was buried at his rural home at Humanikwa Village in Buhera. The Herald
