By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
POLITICIAN Edith Nawakwi, has been granted an interim injunction restraining her two step-children from acting as administrators of the estate of her late husband, Geoffrey Hambulo.
Lusaka High Court Judge, Dorcas Malama, has ordered that the administrator general to manage the late Mr Hambulo’s estate pending final determination of the main matter.
Justice Malama warned Ms Nwakawi and her step-children to desist from dealing with the deceased’s estate in any way without the requisite legal authority.
This is according to a ruling on Ms Nawakwi’s application for an interim injunction preventing her step children Mweemba and Mulundu Udima Tokyo Hambulo from managing their father’s estate. In her petition filed in the Lusaka High Court Family Division, Forum for Democracy and Development president, Ms Nawakai, stated that her husband who died on December 5, 2021, due to complications from prostate cancer left a will. She is seeking an order to revoke the letters of administration of the estate of her late husband granted to the duo by the Lusaka High Court.
The applicant is seeking an order to deem the document dated April 20, 2018 and its subsequent amendment made in November 2020 as the will left by her late husband.
She stated that in the alternative, the court orders that late Mr Hambulo died intestate and the provisions of the Intestate Succession Act Chapter 59 of the laws of Zambia should apply and she should be the administrator of the estate.
But Mulundu argued that the father was never married to their step-mother but were merely cohabiting. He added that the father never left a Will. Ms Nawakwi however produced a marriage certificate in court which shows that she and the late Hambulo, were married at St Ignatius Parish Catholic Church on December 22, 2014.
Justice Malama however said since the deceased’s estates consists of real property, therefore , it would be difficult to adequately measure in monetary terms in the event that the step-children’s administration of the said estate is found wanting at a later stage in the main matter.
“For the reasons stated above, I am satisfied and find that the applicant should be granted an interim injunction pending the determination of the main matter. I, accordingly, grant the applicant an interim injunction restraining the respondents from dealing with the estate of the late Geoffrey Hambulo in any way until the determination of this matter or until further order of this court,” she ruled.
