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Tendai Rupapa
Senior Reporter
FIRST Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has reignited her inheritance and property awareness campaign following calls on her office to do so by women.
So upbeat about the move is a large section of the population which is convinced it will trigger behavioural change in families and communities.
The initial awareness campaign, ran from 2018 to 2019 and was held in two phases — at provincial and district level. To facilitate robust awareness, the First Lady roped in a team of experts from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Master of the High Court, the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) and Council of Estate Administrators, among others.
The awareness campaign came at a time when widows and orphans were being left wallowing in poverty by greedy relatives who abused their positions to enjoy a deceased relative’s wealth at the expense of his or her immediate family.
Cases abound countrywide of widows and orphans who would have been thrown into destitution after relatives sell homes and convert the proceeds to their own use.
In an interview yesterday, Master of the High Court, Mr Eldard Mutasa said the First Lady’s educative inheritance interface workshops which she conducted countrywide had resulted in an increase in the number of deceased estates being registered as people were advised to register estates within statutory time limits as well as familiarise with laws and processes involved in deceased estates administration.
He conceded that the initiative has helped clear some misconceptions surrounding inheritance matters and welcomed the return of the programme.
“With a number of people appreciating inheritance laws and procedures, there was a decrease in inheritance disputes. It was clear during workshops that society in general lacked knowledge and understanding of inheritance processes which resulted in unnecessarily prolonged estate winding up process.
“People also leant on who should benefit from the estate generally. There was a misconception in some quarters that a girl child is not entitled to inherit. Others were of the misguided view that only children under the age of 18 years were entitled to inherit. There are some who believed that they were automatically entitled to benefit simply because they hold a marriage certificate notwithstanding that before their purported “marriage”, the deceased had a valid monogamous marriage with a different person which still subsisted at the time of the deceased’s death. These issues were clarified during interface workshops,” he said.
People, said Mr Mutasa, welcomed guidance on how the appointment of an executor is done.
“There was improvement in choice of executors as people were enlightened on the role and functions of an executor.” Inheritance formulas, said the Master of the High Court, was another area in which the majority of participants were very interested.
“People wanted to know who gets what when someone dies. The workshops assisted in explaining and clarifying the inheritance formulas as provided in the relevant statutes. As people got to know their standing with regards inheritance entitlement, misunderstandings over who gets what were reduced resulting in improvement in finalization of estates. People were advised to seek legal advice for proper guidance whenever they face challenges.”
Another important area which was discussed during the workshops was the issue of property grabbing where relatives would distribute assets during funerals or memorial services.
“People were advised that it was against the law to distribute both movable and immovable assets during the funeral or memorial services. Such distribution will be in violation of section 10 of the Deceased Persons Family Maintenance Act (Chapter 6:03) which criminalized property grabbing. Therefore no furniture, equipment, stands/houses, etc should be distributed. These assets may only be distributed by a duly appointed executor after approval by the office of the Master. Only clothing may be distributed according to custom” he said.
Mr Mutasa further said despite the benefits realised from the First Lady’s inheritance laws awareness workshops so far, more still needed to be done to ensure that all citizens become aware of the inheritance laws and processes as it emerged during the workshops that even some of the learned and sophisticated ones were ignorant of these laws and processes.
“Lack of knowledge to a larger extent delays administration of estates as parties get involved in unnecessary disputes/fights. The office therefore appreciates the awareness workshops as they have not only assisted in reducing misunderstandings/disputes but have also made the public aware of the role and functions of the office in as far as inheritance issues are concerned,” he said.
So touched by the plight of widows, widowers and orphans was the First Lady that she engaged the legal experts to ensure they were not shortchanged in the case of the death of the breadwinners.
While men are also affected, it emerged during the First Lady’s interactions that women and children were the worst affected.
Women without children were largely being sidelined from accessing their late spouses’ estate and some were being chased away from their matrimonial homes, especially in rural areas if they refuse to be inherited by a brother or some other family member, but the situation looks set to improve because of the First Lady’s intervention.
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