The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
IN a landmark ruling, a Mutare magistrate has granted an application by a man who was orphaned at a young age to evict his elderly stepmother from his late father’s house.
The man, Charles Shava, who claimed that he was the heir to his father’s estate, argued that his stepmother, Esther Nikatope, had no right to occupy the property as she was not legally married to his father, Emmanuel Abraham, and had no children with him.
The 77-year-old widow has vowed to resist the eviction, saying she was the sole occupant of the house for close to 40 years and has nowhere else to go.
Presiding magistrate, Ms Purity Gumbo last Thursday ruled that Shava proved his case beyond any reasonable doubt and ordered Nikatope to vacate the premises within 30 days or face eviction by the Messenger of Court.
The ruling left Nikatope devastated.
“I have nowhere to go as I was left at the house by my late husband. The eviction came as a shock to me. l are now homeless and scratching my head, thinking of where to find alternative accommodation.
“This is the place I have called home for all these years. We stayed here since 1986 until my husband’s death in 1996. I am at a loss of words and I face a bleak future because of this judgement.
“Why would someone be so heartless and drag me to court over the ownership of this house? Besides, the house was mine and not his father’s, but Shava insists that it belonged to his father,” she said.
Nikatope claimed that after Abraham’s death in 1996, the house was on the verge of being repossessed by Mutare City Council as it was under the rent to buy scheme.
For years, debts were accruing on the property until she cleared them all.
After clearing off the debts, Nikatope says the house was registered in her name.
She also claims that during the course of her marriage, she never knew of Abraham’s other family and Shava’s existence.
“This man who is now trying to evict me never set foot at my late husband’s funeral. I never knew him, even in his childhood,” she cried.
Nikatope said she was shocked to hear about the house’s change of ownership through the grapevine.
The elderly woman was being represented by Mutare lawyer, Mr Chris Ndlovu of Gonese and Ndlovu Legal Practitioners.
In his application, Shava claimed that Nikatope and her daughter, Lydia Majere, wilfully deceived the court by claiming that she was his late father’s only surviving spouse and that he had no children.
He pressed charges against them and they were convicted of fraud at the Mutare Magistrates’ Court.
Shava argued that Nikatope was only co-habiting with his late father and never got married to him.
In the application, Shava asked for the eviction of Nikatope, her daughter and anyone else who might be residing at the house in question.
“They should pay the sum of US$70 every month from the date the application was made to the date they will vacate the premises,” Shava’s papers propose.
In May, Shava took the matter to Mutare High Court where it was declared that the registration and subsequent distribution of the late Abraham’s property was null and void.
He was then named as the estate’s executor.
