The law of inheritance

Pardy Gotora Features Correspondent
Whenever a person dies, especially adults, we hear of inheritance. Many fights and family disputes have arisen over who should get what when a loved one dies.
But what is inheritance and how does it work? Wikipedia defines inheritance as “the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon death of an individual. . .The rules of inheritance differ between societies and have changed over time” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance).

Similarly in Zimbabwe, the law of inheritance differs depending on whether you consider it under customary law or under general law and also between societies.

But from the afore-mentioned definition, inheritance only occurs when someone dies. There are some societies who are still practising patrilineal inheritance where only the male descendants inherit from their fathers. There is nothing for women under this arrangement.

Lots of quarrels emerge whenever there is an issue of inheritance. We have witnessed some disputes that tear the family set-up and relatives become enemies because of inheritance. Each inheritance process is a learning process.

In Shona they say “kugaranhaka huona dzevamwe”, which means there is no expert in such matters. Some squabbles end up being settled by the courts when family members fail to agree. This ignites some memories of one of the greatest musicians to emerge from this country, the late System Tazvida’s songs popularly known as “Pfuma Yababa”(not sure if it is the real name of the song), but goes like “pfuma yababa ndiyo yomorwira mose, isuvanavacho, toraramaneik. . .”. The whole inheritance process is marred with violence and greedy.

Recently, the media was awash with news that the late former South African President Nelson Mandela’s will was revealed. The inheritance of his wealth was contained in that will document. In Zimbabwe, the will is a very critical document that is recognised by the laws of the land for it helps on matters to do with inheritance, should the unfortunate circumstance of death befalls to us.

But how many of us are ready to prepare a will or in fact do have a will? Would you let your spouse, children, parents and other relatives know that you have a will even if you do not divulge the details contained therein? Is it a sacred item that must be zipped from the rest of the family? At what stage is it prudent to prepare a will, only when you are rich or the moment you acquire a few assets like a television set and sofas? 0Who should be the torch-bearers in the conscientisation of the members of the public about the significance of a will or just the law of inheritance?

Mrs Regina Mawarire (not her real name) was a widow who inherited her late husband’s house by virtue of being a surviving spouse.

The couple had one and only son, Kenneth (not his real name). The husband died when Kenneth was still 10 years old and the “poor” widow had to fend for him till he finished university at the age of 23.

She rented out some of the rooms on the seven-roomed house to augment what she got from cross-border trading in order to take care of Kenneth. Having gotten wind of the news that her siblings were planning to inherit her house upon her passing on, she sought to protect her only child from the jaws of her covetous brothers and sisters. She approached one law firm with the intention to donate the house to her only son while she was still alive.

The law firm assisted the widow to see through the whole process and change of ownership was duly executed, with all her blessings. However, even though the house had been donated, it did not entail that she would retire to the rural areas, but she would continue to stay at the house for some time.

Kenneth got a decent job after university and he had no trouble staying with his only surviving parent who nurtured him to be what he was. After two years, he decided to marry his long time sweetheart, Faith (not her real name).

They had a colourful wedding and Mrs Mawarire was there to witness the fruits of her hard work and forget about the difficulties she encountered when raising Kenneth as a single parent. As fate would have it, Kenneth later died in a car crash while on duty. The house was now registered in Kenneth’s name because it had been donated to him.

I must hasten to admit that I am not a lawyer to interpret the law accordingly, but according to a pamphlet published by the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) in 2013 titled “INHERITANCE Under Customary Law & General Law”, where there is no will and the General Law Inheritance is applicable, “if there is a surviving spouse and no children,

but a surviving parent: the house and the household effect go to the spouse”.

The late Kenneth had no children, but a spouse. In this case in point, the surviving spouse was no longer Mrs Regina Mawarire, instead it was Faith, and the former was a surviving parent. Thus according to LRF, Faith was entitled, at law, to inherit the house. It goes further to intimate that “of the amount which then still remains, half will go to the spouse and half to the surviving parents in equal shares. If only one parent is surviving, the deceased parent’s share will be inherited by the deceased’s brothers and sisters”. Hence Mrs Mawarire could only benefit from the amount which still remained after the house’s inheritance. It only took the time until Kenneth’s, memorial service,

which was a bit delayed though, for Mrs Mawarire’s currency of stay at the house to remain relevant to her daughter-in law, Faith- who was literally the new owner of the house. Unknown to her that Faith had other ideas, she woke up one morning only to be told to look for alternative accommodation at the end of the month because “mwana wenyu wamaigarira pano haasisipo” (your son is no more).

She dismissed it as a mere gag because “there is no way my only daughter-in-law could treat me like that”, she thought. Behind her back, Faith had already found some tenants to occupy the full house while she went back to her parents’ home and make money out of the house. By the way, Faith was unemployed.

At the end of the month, Mrs Mawarire was shocked, on her return from the market, to see a truck loading some household goods from the house to an unknown destination, but Faith was assisting. Only her belongings remained. Upon inquiry, she heard that the new tenant was on his way to take occupation. Therefore, she had to move all her staff to a single room momentarily, pay rent for the ensuing month and retire to the village the subsequent month or continue to pay rent for the single room she would be occupying until she found an alternative.

Assuming Faith remarried later, then the new spouse would become the new husband and she dies, who would inherit the property? Maybe Mrs Mawarire still survived at the time and constantly followed the proceedings about the house. Remember she did not benefit a single cent from this deal because it was a donation. If you were Mrs Mawarire, what would you do? How much do we know of our constitutional rights? Who should take the initiative to orientate the citizens about their rights? As responsible and literate citizens, how much time are we committing to knowing our rights?