The estate of the late socialite, Genius Ginimbi Kadungure is at risk after lawyer Patricia Darangwa, the disputed executor of Ginimbi’s estate has approached the Supreme Court challenging a provisional High Court order prohibiting her from processing the properties.
The High Court order was granted recently by Justice Slyvia Chirawu-Mugomba after the Kadungure family questioned the legitimacy of an unsigned will presented by Darangwa, and why she was appointed executrix by the Master of High Court in the first place.
The appeal automatically suspends the execution of the provisional High Court draft order and has prompted the Kadungure family to rush back to court seeking its operationalisation.
The FNB Bank Botswana, holding some of the Ginimbi’s finances, gave the family a moratorium of up to March 31, 2021, to resolve the executorship dispute and will validity issues. It also appears there are liabilities.
The bank is now demanding that a Know Your Customer (KYC) process on the deceased’s company account be done in seven days, failure to which it shall without notice invoke loan recovery remedies available to it at law.
In a certificate of urgency, family lawyer Wellington Magaya said the bank’s demands and deadlines create more urgency to have the litigation finalised. He said:
There is no doubt this threatens the assets of the deceased’s company in which applicants have a well grounded shareholding.
The directorship and KYC issues digging the resumption of operations of the deceased’s company called Quick Gases(Pty) Ltd can only be permanently addressed if the court pronounces itself on the return day in HC136/21 on the validity or otherwise of Darangwa’s appointment as executrix and the document she produced as a will.
In an affidavit supporting the application, Ginimbi’s sister Juliet, accused Darangwa of abusing court processes for greedy reasons. She said:
I have no doubt the appeal by Darangwa has been filed to jam the process. Darangwa has abused this court’s process to gratify her ends.
The court has to register its displeasure and award costs of suit on a higher scale. On this question of costs, she has to be reminded that all she has done or is doing is in terms of a document which is a nullity. The appeal is also a nullity in the circumstances.
Juliet argued that the finalisation of the process was “in fact, it is in the best interests of both parties therein that they know their fate in time so that the deceased’s estate takes a proper direction.”
Ginimbi died in a fiery car crash in November last year when his Rolls Royce veered off the road in Harare and rammed into a tree before exploding into a fireball, killing him on the spot and three friends.
More: ZimLive