Tsvangirai estate row over escalates

A ROW over the late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured)'s estate continued this week, resulting in the Master of the High Court reportedly appointing two executors.

One of the executors will represent Tsvangirai's family and the other Elizabeth Macheka after the two parties failed to settle for one.

Tsvangirai died in February and his family is divided on the way forward regarding the estate with his wife, the surviving spouse, dominating the inheritance.

A letter to one of the family members seen by NewsDay confirmed that a meeting took place at the Master of the High Court.

"This letter serves to inform you that at 9:30am on March 27, 2018, there will be an edict meeting (meeting for purposes of, among other things, choosing an executor in this estate) at the offices of the Master of High Court in Harare," the letter read.

Elizabeth is claiming entitlement to the estate.

She reportedly has the support of Tsvangirai's other two children, Miriro and Richard, from another union.

The rest of the children and other family members were up in arms with her, with others challenging the fact that she was the surviving spouse. They are accusing her of deserting Morgan in times of need.

After the meeting, two executors, lawyers Innocent Chagonda and Jonathan Samukange were appointed representing Elizabeth and Tsvangirai family in particular.

Chagonda confirmed that he was the executor, but was yet to be formally advised, as he left the proceedings early.

Samkange confirmed the development.

"There is an agreement that there will be two executors. I will be representing Tsvangirai family and the other one will be representing Elizabeth," he said.

Samukange said it was permissible to have two executors if the parties fail to agree.

"If the parties fail to agree, the Master can appoint two executors. The next step is that the two will sit and compile an inventory which will be submitted to the Master."

Samukange said they will be looking at the creditors and debtors of Tsvangirai and if there are debts, they will be offset by the estate before distribution.

Since the last days of Tsvangirai, there has been bad blood between Tsvangirai family and Elizabeth. At the airport when Tsvangirai's body arrived from South Africa, his mother vowed that Elizabeth must not attend the funeral or else she will commit suicide in protest.

Elizabeth's backers accused Tsvangirai's family of trying to segregate her so that she will be sidelined from the proceedings and ultimately fail to get part of the late MDC-T leader's estate.

Sources however, claim Tsvangirai was done off with his elderly children, accusing them of prioritising his estate during his last moments.

"Elderly children were trying to ring-fence their father and block anyone from seeing him. They also didn't want his two other children to have something from his estate as they were widely seen to be friendly to Elizabeth," the source said.

"The fights between Tsvangirai's family and Elizabeth have been there, but they were worsened when Tsvangirai's health deteriorated. Now the fights will go on because of benefits that are set to be released.

"If one analyses the way she was treated in South Africa and the funeral, it's very easy to see there is a bigger untold story."

Others claim there were confrontations between Elizabeth and Tsvangirai's elderly daughter, Vimbai.

Vimbai refused to discuss the matter with NewsDay yesterday.

However, others blamed Elizabeth of not failing to stand with her late husband. Given the hostility the two executors are expected to come up with the way forward.