Africa-Press – Eswatini. Acting Ludzidzini Governor, Themba Ginindza, has challenged parliamentarians to address issues surrounding operations of the Master of the High Court.
Ginindza, responding to the Supreme Court judgment endorsing the office of the Master of the High Court, said the Eswatini custom of wealth distribution was way much faster as compared to the Master of the High Court process.
“That is the beauty of the Eswatini culture,” he said. The acting indvuna said Emaswati could find a solution to regulate the administering of estates by the family heir if they were of the view that the culture was workable for them.
He said now that the 12th Parliament was fully operational, the lawmakers had to look into this issue, even the complaints that a family heir tends to assume the estate belonged to him yet that was not the case. He emphasised that Emaswati had representatives in Parliament to take up such concerns and that the recently held People’s Parliament was also a platform to bring up all these issues.
“According to our culture a family heir does not own the estate but is there to administer it equally amongst members,” Ginindza stated.
His assertions follow the Supreme Court’s decision this week where it upheld a High Court ruling that the Master of the High Court had a say over estates where couples were married under customary law.
In the case, the appellants had argued that Petros Maqoqa Mpanza, late, practiced customary law as he had two wives, who he married through Eswatini Law and Custom.
It was contended that the appointment of the executor ought not to have taken place due to the irregularity and or invalidity of Mpanza’s last Will and testament and, in addition, Eswatini Law and Custom dictates that the affairs of the deceased were taken care of by an inkhosatane (heiress).
As consequential relief appellant prayed for the removal of the executor appointed by the Master to wind up the estate; for an order that any dispute arising out of the estate be prosecuted under Eswatini Law and Custom; for an order declaring the last Will and testament of Mpanza to be irregular and or invalid and of no force and effect.
Also raising concerns on the ruling, President of the League of African Churches, Bishop Samson Hlatjwako, said he was unhappy with the judgment because of the operations of the Master’s office.
The bishop said the Master of the High Court’s office was marred with allegations of corrupt practices, as well as clinging on families’ estates for years and not making distributions, to the serious detriment of surviving family members, including widows and children.
He said if there was someone within the family, who was appointed heir then it should be that person’s responsibility to look after the surviving members. Hlatjwako said it ought to be the responsibility of the heir to administer the estate on behalf of all family members, not to say that estate belonged to him per se.
Further, he said the problem was having a situation where the father or mother dies and the surviving spouse holds on to the entire estate, much to the predicament of even the children.
The bishop also made an example of a family business that comes to a complete halt and eventually perishes just because the office of the Master of the High Court was, for unknown reasons, refusing or neglecting to make distributions for years so much that children end up even starving back home and dropping out of school.
“One then wonders whether the Master of the High Court withholds the estate to generate interest before distributing it,” Bishop Hlatjwako said.
He went on that this was a painful experience because in the yesteryears that was not the case under Eswatini custom. He said money was not released easily and timely at the Master of the High Court.
“And we have heard of corrupt tendencies within the office of the Master of the High Court but then again one may not know whether these allegations are true or not, but something is not right with that office.”
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