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Tendai Rupapa
Senior Reporter
Disgruntled widows in Dema last week heaved a deep sigh of relief when they were accorded one-on-one consultations with experts on inheritance who visited their area, in an exercise that highlighted the challenges faced by widows, widowers and orphans following the death of breadwinners.
The experts included representatives from the Master of the High Court, Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), Council of Estate Administrators and other affiliated organisations.
It emerged during the meeting that inheritance issues remained thorny in communities where widows and orphans were largely being given a raw deal.
The experts’ visit was arranged by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa who has a passion for the empowerment of women and children.
She reignited her inheritance and property awareness campaign following calls on her office to do so by widows, widowers and orphans whose rights were being trampled upon.
Widows, widowers and orphans have often not had it easy following the death of the breadwinner as greedy relatives abuse their positions to sell homes and other valuables like vehicles, leaving them wallowing in poverty.
After the programme, the experts remained behind and gave attendees individual advice on their various cases affecting them as it emerged during discussions that most of them did not afford fares to travel from one office to the other.
So timely was the First Lady’s intervention that it left most widows, who had sob stories to tell, hopeful and grateful that they had been given a shoulder to cry on.
The programme wiped away their tears and left them with smiles on their faces. Most of the widows, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliations by relatives, said they were going through hell at the hands of their late husbands’ greedy relatives.
The situation was even worse for childless widows.
The experts heard a touching story from a widow who was being denied inheritance because she had no child with the deceased after her 13 years of marriage.
She was advised to write a letter to the Master’s office to enable the Master to write a letter directing the executor to award her whatever was due to her at law given that a childless widow was entitled to inheritance.
Another widow, complained that she was being chased from her rural home and the land she had been surviving on for over 20 years by the deceased’s brothers because she had refused to accept one of the brothers as husband (kugarwa nhaka).
She said the village head was not being helpful despite being made aware of the problem. She was advised that there was no justification for her removal as she was entitled to protection by the law. The widow was advised to escalate the matter with the relevant chief. She will be given a letter explaining her predicament to take with her to the chief.
If that route does not bear fruit, she was told that further steps will be taken.
During the meeting, another widow said she needed assistance to recover household goods and a vehicle which had been taken away by relatives after the burial of her husband.
Experts advised her to write a letter listing the assets and addresses of the perpetrators to get assistance in recovering the assets.
Among the widows, was another woman who said she was being forced to sell the matrimonial house and share the proceeds among the brothers and sisters of the deceased.
She was told that she should not get anything as she came into the marriage with nothing and therefore should go with nothing.
The Master told her that she was entitled to the matrimonial home since she met the requirements which qualified her to inherit.
She was advised to write a letter providing contact details of the concerned relatives to enable the office to convene a roundtable meeting to discuss on the issue and give directions on way forward.
With tears trickling down her chicks a 29-year-old widow gave a heart-rending account of how she was chased from the house where she used to stay with her customary law husband.
The marriage was not registered and she was tricked by her in-laws into leaving for her parents’ home for some days to be “consoled and comforted” during the period of mourning.
On her return, the unsuspecting widow was perturbed to learn that she had to permanently move out her belongings and handover all assets to the executor.
In this case, however, the executor was appointed in terms of the will which was registered before her customary marriage. The will neither included her nor her child as beneficiaries.
She said there was a second will which included her, but was not signed by the deceased.
The widow was referred to a lawyer representing the law society who was part of the team for legal assistance.
The First Lady’s inheritance awareness campaign, which will be taken across the country, will surely ease the plight of widows and orphans while teaching communities to handle inheritance matters in ways that do not sow division.
The programme was held in observance of Covid-19 protocols of washing hands, sanitising, masking and observing social distance.
People were also being tested for Covid-19.
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