The judicial fights over the control of late Harare business magnate and socialite, Genius ”Ginimbi” Kadungure’s multi-million dollar estate continues to be characterised by twists and turns after the High Court yesterday granted the deceased’s family leave to enjoy the inheritance pending an appeal at the Supreme Court- the country’s highest court of order and the final court of appeal in Zimbabwe.
In his ruling, Justice Amy Tsanga, who presided over the case, granted the Kadungure family- which is being represented by Ginimbi’s surviving sisters Juliet and Nelia and his father Anderson Kadungure- full access and enjoyment on his wealth while awaiting an appeal at the Supreme Court.
The second and decisive ruling by the court comes hard on the heels of a previous verdict which had authenticated the late Ginimbi’s lawyer, Patricia Darangwa as heir apparent to his estate.
Initially, Darangwa had been appointed as the executor of Ginimbi’s estate shortly after the demise of her celebrity client in a fatal November 8 road traffic accident involving the businessman’s Rolls Royce Wraith and a Honda Fit vehicle.
This, Darangwa did, on the back of an unsigned will, allegedly penned by Ginimbi during his days on Earth.
And, in their successful application at the High Court, the Kadungure trio told Justice Tsanga that Darangwa had unduly influenced them and also that the unsigned will she used to get the short-lived execution powers was not Ginimbi’s.
State-owned daily tabloid, H-Metro partially quoted the Kadungure family letter to Darangwa, which reads:
“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.”
And, when Darangwa refused to back down, the Kadungure family ended up challenging the decision at the High Court- a move which resulted in Justice Tsanga ruling in their favour and disregarding the lawyer’s previlege to be the executor of the flamboyant businessman’s moneyed estate.
Defiantly and in her reaction to the High Court verdict, Darangwa appealed against Tsanga’s ruling at the Supreme Court.
And, as the inheritance drama of the late Ginimbi’s estate unfolds, his surviving family members countered Darangwa’s move by approaching Justice Tsanga for the granting of permission to operationalise the order pending the Supreme Court appeal.
The family has since been granted that permission as both parties are awaiting the outcome of the appeal Darangwa made to the Supreme Court.
Ginimbi’s demise last year attracted global headlines with many people expressing mixed reactions over the mysterious circumstances surrounding the magnitude of the wreckage on his supercar- the expensive Rolls Royce Wraith- which was involved in a head-on collision with a modest vehicle in the size and modest make of a mere Honda Fit.
Zwnews
