Zimpapers Logo

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Mujuru family lawyer Mr Thakor Kewada has revealed that the late General Solomon Mujuru’s widow, Dr Joice Mujuru, has his will, but is refusing to avail it to the court, a move that has led the High Court to appoint an independent executor of his estate, Mr Stern Mufara.

Mr Kewada said in a letter to the Master of High Court, Mr Eldard Mutasa, on Tuesday that Dr Mujuru once read the will to her daughters, but was clinging to it.

This was after the Mujuru family was given five days last week to produce the will at the court.

Mr Mufara is a renowned professional executor who operates from Nyika, Kanengoni and Partners Legal Practitioners in Harare.

Mr Mutasa, in a letter to Mr Kewada, said the family had delayed in registering Gen Mujuru’s estate and producing the Will, to the prejudice of potential beneficiaries and creditors, hence the need to appoint an executor to wind up the process.

“Mindful of the fact that it has taken almost four years without anyone producing the purported Will, if ever it does really exist, my office, on the background of your confirmation that you do not have a Will, but rather a trust deed, has to proceed as resolved at the aforementioned edict meeting,” he said.

“Further delays in winding up this estate will not only be prejudicial to potential beneficiaries, but also to potential creditors and the fiscus in the form of death duties.

“Accordingly, pursuant to the resolution made at the edict meeting, my office, by copy of this letter, hereby appoints Mr Stern Mufara of Messrs Nyika Kanengoni and Partners Legal Practitioners, 155 Samora Machel Avenue, Harare, to be the executor of the estate of the late Solomon T. Mujuru.”

Mr Mufara, according to Mr Mutasa’s letter, is expected to deal with all matters affecting the estate as required by law.

In a letter to Mr Mutasa dated March 24, 2015, Mr Kewada said he did not have the last will executed by the late Gen Mujuru, but he had a duplicate of the original copy of the Solomon Mujuru Family Trust in which 13 beneficiaries were listed.

Dr Mujuru and 12 children with birth certificates bearing the name of the late Gen Mujuru’s name as their father were listed in the document as beneficiaries.

The 12 are: Maidei Mujuru (born 01-05-74), Kumbirai Mujuru (02-08-78), Chipo Mujuru (21-08-79), Tendayi Mujuru (02-07-81), Nyasha Mujuru (24-07-84), Kuzivakwashe Mujuru (21-09-89), Takunda Arthur Mujuru (17-01-88), Tsitsi Mujuru (23-03-79), Bianca Mujuru (28-03-79), Naomi Mujuru (12-04-94), Ngonidzashe Mujuru (20-03-84) and Tawanda Mujuru (23-03-94).

Mr Kewada indicated that some years back, he drew a will for the late Gen Mujuru in which he was nominated as executor, but the will was kept at the late national hero’s Churchill Avenue offices.

He said efforts to get the will from Dr Mujuru were fruitless despite information that she even read it to her children after Gen Mujuru’s death.

“I have on at least two occasions before his death seen the said will at his office in Churchill Avenue, Harare,” said Mr Kewada.

“After the General’s death, I requested his widow, Dr Joice Mujuru, to let me have the original will to lodge with the Master’s office and have his estate formally registered.

“Dr Mujuru informed me that she was going through all the documents at the late General’s office and will let me have the will when she had located it.

“On a number of occasions over the past four years, I requested Dr Mujuru and/or her daughters to let me have the will.

“She said she was still going through the documents and had not located it.”

Mr Kewada said some two years ago, Dr Mujuru’s daughters told him the their mother had the will.

“About two years ago, the General’s daughter Nyasha told me Dr Mujuru had the will as she had gathered her four daughters together and read out the will at a will reading meeting,” he said.

“I requested Nyasha to inform her mother to let me have the will, but the will has to this day, never been delivered to me despite my several requests.”

Mr Kewada said on Friday last week, he communicated with Dr Mujuru over the edict meeting held on the same day and she indicated that she had the will.

“I advised Dr Mujuru that she and her four daughters should attend the edict meeting and she should let the Master of the High Court have the will of the late General,” he said.

“Dr Mujuru replied to my text message stating: ‘You took a copy and we were supposed to meet’. This presupposes Dr Mujuru has the will. I certainly did not take or get a copy of the signed will. If I had, I would have lodged the copy and registered the estate immediately. I informed Dr Mujuru of this.”

Mr Kewada said he told the Mujuru family members that if he was to be appointed the executor of the estate, he would cease to represent them while only attending to winding up the estate.

General Mujuru died in an inferno at his Beatrice Farm in 2011 and was buried at the National Heroes Acre.