THE late music superstar and national hero, Oliver “Tuku”
Mtukudzi’s children may find it difficult to challenge his will and testament
lodged with the Master of the High Court early this week, as there is no legal
provision that entitles adult children to benefit from their father’s estate,
NewsDay Life & Style has established.
In the will, Tuku bequeathed his entire estate to his widow
Daisy, leaving all his children — Selmor, Samantha, Sandra and Selby — and
other relatives who were probably expecting to get something in the cold.
“I hereby bequeath all my properties, share and shares in
any company or companies or entities to my wife, Daisy Kudzai Mtukudzi born on
the second of February 1959,” reads the will.
Although Selmor and Sandra’s sympathisers felt the
daughters could challenge the will and also get a share of their father’s
wealth, a legal expert who deals with the administration of deceased estates
yesterday said chances of such a legal challenge succeeding were virtually nil.
The expert — who declined to be named for professional
reasons — said there was no legal provision that entitled adult children to
their father’s wealth upon death.
“All adult children, even minors, can be part of the
beneficiaries, but there is no provision in the law that they should benefit.
But the advantage of minor children is that they can have recourse to the law
if the deceased had the legal duty to provide for them,” he said.
“Selmor and others are self-supporting adults so the
chances of successfully challenging the will are very remote, unless if there
are allegations of some form of interference (in the drafting of the will), but
they need to prove that,” he said.
The legal practitioner said while it was within anyone’s
right to challenge a will, the doctrine of freedom of testation gave Tuku the
liberty to draft his will as he saw fit.
He admitted that the will may not have been updated as it
was drafted at a time when Tuku was at loggerheads with his daughters with
former wife Melody Murape — Selmor and Sandra — after the former made damaging
claims of neglect and ill-treatment against Tuku.
The legal expert said it would have been more prudent and
responsible for Tuku to award something to his children because by default,
Daisy’s children, Samantha and Faith, stand to be the biggest beneficiaries.
“That was not proper and progressive estate planning,” he
said.
Immovable properties declared by Daisy in the inventory
included several original deeds of transfer, offer letters for subdivision 5 of
Bloemfontein, Mazowe, in favour of Oliver Mtukudzi, while movable properties
included a Land Rover Discovery, Nissan NP200, Tata bus, Tata truck and a
Challenger trailer. Newsday
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