Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Hounded Misihairabwi gives up Mushonga estate

COMMENT -

Misihairabwi said she took the step after people close to her were “harassed and intimidated by state agents

Is minister Misihairabwi (MDC) saying that the MDC is using state agents to settle personal scores?

Hounded Misihairabwi gives up Mushonga estate
by Lebo Nkatazo
19/05/2010 00:00:00

REGIONAL Integration Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi has signed off her interest in her late husband’s estate after being hounded by his relatives and children.

Misihairabwi said she took the step after people close to her were “harassed and intimidated by state agents” purportedly working on behalf of the late Chris Mushonga’s children and brother.

“I have decided to relinquish any claim or right to the estate as defined in the late Dr Mushonga’s last Will and Testament,” Misihairabwi told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

The minister, who was married to the orthopaedic surgeon for 13 years, said she will give up the matrimonial home in Mt Pleasant along with two other properties – offices on Harare’s Fife Avenue and an apartment in Northworld.

Misihairabwi said she would also turn over any funds left in their local joint accounts as well as Mushonga’s foreign currency accounts in Jersey and England.

She is also handing over a Mercedes which her late husband said in his will must be given to his son from another marriage, Munemo.

Mushonga died on August 15, three weeks after he was brutally attacked, along with a maid, at the couple’s Mt Pleasant home in an apparent armed robbery. The minister was on a world tour with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the time.

Police arrested a seven-man gang -- Makaika Milanzi, 33, Assan Chikwada, 29, Tichaona Soda, 31, Crispen Sibanda, 50, Antony Khumbula, 31, Steven Zvinoseva, 26 and Tendai Jongwe, 38 -- who all face murder charges.

But Misihairabwi said since burying her husband, she has never known peace. Mushonga’s nine children from another marriage -- Munemo, Tawengwa, Sekai, Nyarai, Ndambi, Musodzi, Pfumojena, Takudzwa and Hazviperi Oprah – came out with their own separate will which they said gave different directions on the transfer of property after his death.

The final straw, Misihairabwi said, was when an aide Rudairo Chitseko was visited by plain clothes police officers at 4.30AM last Thursday who said they had an instruction from a Sergeant Sipurai of the Commercial Crimes Unit to arrest her.

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri intervened in the matter, demanding to know why police were involving themselves in matters which are before the civil courts, according to Misihairabwi. Chitseko was never charged.

The minister said: “It is events such as these that have made me take this decision, inspite of what I believe is a right of surviving spouses in this country to live in peace and be protected from abuse after the death of their husbands.”

She said she was withdrawing any interest in Mushonga’s estate to avoid “putting lives of innocent people at risk”, adding: “I would prefer to become just another statistic as a victim of a society that unfortunately has failed not only to protect me but to provide protection to a majority of widows that must face this abuse everyday.”

She hoped her move would “close the debate and discussion over my late husband’s estate whose legacy should be that of a loving husband and a great orthopaedic surgeon whose contribution to this country goes beyond a house and a few dollars.”

Labels: CORRUPTION, INHERITANCE, MDC CORRUPTION, PRISCILLA MISIHAIRABWI

posted by MrK @ 1:13 AM