Work begins on Mujuru estate

via Work begins on Mujuru estate | The Herald April 1, 2015 by Fidelis Munyoro

The preliminary list of the late General Solomon Mujuru’s fortune shows that the estate is of substantial value and disagreements are likely to emerge given the number of anticipated beneficiaries, the executor said yesterday.

Gen Mujuru, who died in an inferno at his Ruzambo Farm, Beatrice in August 2011, is reported to have left multinational investments in mining, real estate, agriculture and tourism. His interests covered River Ranch Diamond Mine, Zimbabwe Mining and Smelting Company, Marange Diamonds, Trojan Nickel Mine, Kulmic Investments and Ruzira Properties.

He also held stakes in hotels and lodges in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique among many other investments.

The list submitted to the Master of the High Court, so far showed about 13 children and Dr Joice Mujuru are potential beneficiaries.

Several other children are expected to come out to claim a stake from the estate amid reports there may be as many as 90 of them.

The Master of the High Court Mr Eldard Mutasa last week appointed Mr Stern Mufara of Nyika, Kanengoni and Partners as the executor of the estate.

The appointment of a neutral executor comes at a time when Dr Mujuru reportedly doctored deeds and nominally changed ownership of her late husband’s assets to prevent other potential beneficiaries, mainly children born out of wedlock from accessing his vast estate.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Mufara said dealing with estates was a challenging job and a huge estate such as that of Gen Mujuru made the task even more demanding.

“I have started working on the estate. The work is still at infancy stage,” said Mr Mufara.

“We will engage the parties to come up with a redistribution agreement in terms of the law.”

Mr Mufara said he had since written to the parties’ lawyers to submit important documents to enable him wind up the estate.

The letter shown to The Herald read: “We request you or your client to furnish us will all the necessary documents relating to the estate which are in your client’s possession e.g marriage certificate, title deeds, share certificates, rent card/cession documents, insurance policies, motor vehicle registration books, death certificate and/or any documents necessary for the winding up of the estate.”

The letter to Dr Mujuru’s lawyers Kantor and Immerman on Monday was also copied to other lawyers representing other interested parties in the multi-billion estate.

Mr Mufara said he would liaise with the parties’ lawyers for a convenient date for a meeting and map the way forward.

He said he had since managed to uplift Gen Mujuru’s death certificate from the Registrar-General’s office on Monday to set the estate in motion.

The estate was registered without the death certificate prompting the executor to seek the intervention of the RG’s office.

“We have advertised for debtors and creditors in the government gazette and The Herald newspaper of this Friday,” said Mr Mufara.

“Under normal circumstances we call for first meeting and impose a date when parties should meet, but in this case since all parties are represented by lawyers, it is imperative that I invite and agree on a mutually convenient date and time for the meeting.”

The administration of the estate begins in earnest with the granting of letters of administration by the Master of the High Court. These were issued on March 26.

In Zimbabwe all provincial and national heroes are exempted from paying estate duty but only pay the Master’s taxing fees.

The executor has to clear with Zimra deceased’s income tax.