Lawyer Patricia Darangwa, the disputed executor of Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure’s estate, has filed a Supreme Court appeal against a provisional High Court order prohibiting her from processing the late socialite’s properties.
The order was granted recently by Justice Slyvia Chirawu-Mugomba who noted “red flags” 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.
Darangwa’s manoeuvre puts Ginimbi’s wealth at risk as it delays finalisation of the feud, an attorney for the family said.
The appeal automatically suspends the execution of the provisional High Court edict, forcing the Kadungures to rush back to court seeking its operationalisation.
In a certificate of urgency, family lawyer Wellington Magaya accused Darangwa of pursuing the matter to the Supreme Court for greedy reasons.
The court has been told that FNB Bank Botswana, holding some of the Ginimbi’s finances, had given 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.
“There is no doubt this threatens the assets of the deceased’s company in which applicants have a well grounded shareholding,” family lawyer Magaya said.
Magaya argued in court papers that the bank’s demands and deadlines create more urgency to have the litigation finalised.
“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,” he added.
In an affidavit supporting the application, Ginimbi’s sister Juliet, accused Darangwa of abusing court processes while using a fake will.
“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,” she submitted.
“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 Darangwa would suffer no prejudice if the provisional order was executed and the process expedited.
“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,” she added.
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.
