Court dismisses father's bid to reclaim son's house

The High Court has thrown out a Chegutu man's attempt to revoke a property registered in his son's name, describing the bitter dispute as a reflection of deep family breakdown.

Onias Gotore had taken his son, Pride Gotore, to court in a row over a house he said he had bought and donated to him, arguing that he should be allowed to reclaim it because Pride had become "disrespectful and violent" and had tried to sell the property against his wishes.

Justice Philda Muzofa, presiding over the case in Chinhoyi, noted the extraordinary nature of the feud. "It is never easy for a father to drag his son to courts; this is just evidence of a broken family. Something must have gone seriously wrong," she remarked.

The court, however, found that there was never a valid donation to begin with. "There was never an intention to gratuitously and without obligation give the 1st respondent the property. There were strings attached. The applicant intended to continue to derive a benefit from the property," Justice Muzofa ruled.

She pointed out that although Onias had funded the purchase, the property was always registered in Pride's name. "The evidence before the Court strongly shows that the applicant purchased the property for the 1st respondent and he had strings attached," she added.

Concluding that revocation can only be made where a valid donation exists, the court dismissed Onias' application with costs, cementing Pride's legal ownership of the property.