Mother, son fight over estate

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
GWANDA Town’s director of housing Sipho Mdlongwa-Nkwate, 56, has approached the courts seeking a protection order against her son, Bohlale, 33, following a fight over her late husband’s estate.
She told Matabeleland South provincial magistrate in charge, Reuben Mukavhi, she feared that her son, a teacher at Plumtree High School, might kill her over the estate.

Mdlongwa-Nkwate accused Bohlale of insulting and harassing her. She begged the court to block him from setting foot on Plot 41 Jani Farm.

She also sought an order barring him from interfering with farm and domestic workers as well as other children she lives with.
“Whenever the respondent gets drunk, he comes home at night and starts harassing everyone. A night before I made a report to the police, we couldn’t sleep as he banged doors and even looked at me in an intimidating manner. He even opened the door to my bedroom and later claimed he had mistaken it for his bedroom,” she said.

Mdlongwa-Nkwate said she has a heart problem and was hypertensive. “I need a protection order because he once assaulted me when his father was still alive.” She said.

Bohlale opposed the application and refuted his mother’s claims.
Mukavhi asked him how he was related to Mdlongwa-Nkwate to which he replied: “I believe she is my mother” before later correcting the statement to say she was his mother after Mukavhi asked for clarification.

“She is fabricating the whole story and I don’t know which farm she is saying I must stay away from because that farm belonged to my late father,” he said.

Bohlale said problems started soon after his father’s death.
He accused his mother and sister of trying to exclude him from the estate. He said his late father, Stuart Nkwate, owned a house and had 36 head of cattle and some goats.

Nkwate who was a Gwanda District Education inspector and well-known figure in the town, was killed in a road accident in February this year after a vehicle he was travelling in veered off the road and overturned.

Mukavhi turned down Mdlongwa’s application saying he was not convinced that a protection order was necessary.
“I see that what is troubling you is the issue of the estate left by Stuart. It appears to me that is the real issue and if it is settled the problems between the two of you will also be settled,” said Mukavhi.

He advised Bohlale not to fear being left out of the estate as he was Nkwate’s son and it was yet to be registered.
Disappointed by Mukavhi’s ruling, Mdlongwa-Nkwate, who was dressed in black mourning clothes, broke down insisting that her life was under threat.