The family of the late socialite and businessman Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure has reportedly hired a lawyer in a bid to try and overturn the will they had submitted to the Master of the High Court, The Herald reports. The family is also reluctant to hand over the car that was left to one of Ginimbi’s friend Kit Kat (real name Nomatter Zinyengere) in the unsigned will.
According to the publication:
The Kadungure family is now becoming disenchanted with the executor, saying they accepted the unsigned will and the appointment of Ms Patricia Darangwa while not thinking fully because of their bereavement.
Ms Darangwa reportedly authored the will and the family now feels she pressed them to accept the will and her appointment although the late Kadungure had not appended his signature to it.
The Kadungure family is also arguing that verifications being done to identify Kit Kat are not yet complete. This came to light after Nomatter Zinyengere wrote to the family asking them to release the car. Kit Kat’s letter through his lawyers reportedly said:
Our client is keen to have his inheritance released from the residue of the estate and is requesting that same be done through the first interim distribution account, a copy of which we are also requesting to inspect.
Furthermore, our client is willing to pay the estate liabilities and related costs for his inheritance and to that end may you kindly issue us an invoice for settlement.
The family which was reportedly not happy about the letter hired their own lawyers, Ushewokunze Law Chambers, to contest the will, and the proposed transfer of the vehicle is believed to be the trigger of the response. The Kadungure family through their lawyers are accusing Ms Darangwa of hurriedly advising them to accept the unsigned will and notified her that they are contesting the authenticity of the will:
We are instructed that before, and in the morning of November 25 2020, you (Ms Darangwa) unduly influenced the family to accept the ‘will’ and threatened that if the family chose to reject the will and your executorship, they would have tarnished your reputation as a lawyer and you were prepared to sue them and subject the estate to unwanted delays even all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Our further instructions are that you in the same vein, attempted to placate the family by dangling an offer or arrangement that the family should unanimously recommend your executorship in terms of the will and in the aftermath of such appointment you were going to sign a special power of attorney entitling Juliet Kadungure to administer the entire estate of the deceased.
We are further instructed that the family accepted the will and recommended your appointment in terms of the will as executrix testamentary only because you unduly influenced them to do so.
However, the family’s suspicion around the authenticity of the will remains difficult to oust. The family has always had, and still has, unanswered questions regarding the said will…
We must mention that the dissatisfaction and anxiety over the genuineness or origin of the will, coupled with a recollection of diverse events antecedent to the demise of the deceased, all culminated in the family’s resort to getting legal advice with a view to bringing closure to the issue of the will
Darangwa’s response to the family through her lawyers said she was shocked by the accusations and she denied unduly influencing the family to accept the unsigned will:
When she (Ms Darangwa) read the will to the family members, they were all very happy about the contents thereof and stated that the will in question contained the wishes of the deceased, which he had hinted to some of the family members, friends and employees before his demise.
The family unanimously agreed that the estate be registered. Even after the registration of the estate, your clients were working very well with our client. She is therefore shocked by your clients’ averments that she unduly influenced them to accept the will,
More: The Herald