Bingu estate value to be reviewed

Parties in the case where administrators of the estimated K61 billion (about $152m) Bingu wa Mutharika deceased estate are seeking an order to unfreeze bank accounts have agreed to review the estate to establish its contents and value.

The parties—administrators of the estate and the Estate Duty Commissioners— reached their agreement before High Court Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu in Blantyre on Thursday.

Interim administrators of the Mutharika estate had applied to the High Court to access all the property of the deceased former president for purposes of establishing the content and value after the High Court in Zomba froze his bank accounts.

The administrators of Mutharika estate, lawyers Kalekeni Kaphale and Modecai Msisha, representing Mutharika daughters, Duwa and Tapiwa, and James Tomoka, for former first lady Callista, had asked the court to unfreeze bank accounts, arguing the decision has put operations and maintenance of the estate and related trusts in jeopardy.

But Mwaungulu advised the administrators and the Estate Duty Commissioners to agree and work out a consent order to bind the two parties.

Yesterday, the parties met in Mwaungulu’s chambers where the court directed them to mediate on the way forward.

One of the lawyers for the Estate Duty Commissioners, Dr Zolomphi Nkowani, in an interview, said: “We have to come to an understanding on the way forward on valuing the estate. We will be reverting to court on 7th Octoberfor the position of the case.”

He added that the two parties also agreed on how the estate duty will be administered and also how the estate duty will be paid.

The Estate Duty Commissioner is claiming a K5 billion (about $12.5m) estate duty cut from Mutharika’s estate alleged to be worth K61 billion.

Meanwhile, the court has reserved its ruling on whether to discharge an order obtained by the estate administrators to have the matter transferred to Blantyre from Zomba.