Free-for-all plunder of deceased estate

If Dickson Namaona were to come back from his grave today, he would not recognise his own wealth he left behind in 1985.

Because it is not there.

It was all plundered by his relatives, leaving his only surviving daughter with nothing.

The late Namaona, from Namaona Village in Traditional Authority (T/A) Chimaliro in Thyolo, left behind property worth millions of kwacha. He had several buildings in Limbe, Chichiri and Kanjedza in Blantyre as well as shops at Number One in Thyolo, tractors, vehicles and maize mills.

The estate was operating under the name Ntchefu and Nansongole Estate.

But today, only one property, the 1 080-acre farm, remains. And the farm too is under threat because some people have already identified clients to buy it.

It has only been delayed by a notice of restraint from Kalekeni Kaphale lawyers.

“This is to warn the general public and all those with an interest to purchase or acquire the (Ntchefu Estate and Nansongole Estate) properties by whatever means that the property is subject to an inhibition order as well as inheritance litigation at the High Court of Malawi which may likely result in orders being made regarding its distribution,” wrote Kalekeni Kaphale in an advertisement in the Weekend Nation of August 10 2013.

Namaona’s only surviving daughter, Nellie, is in sorry state. Few would believe that her father had abundant wealth. She feels let down by the property grabbing.

When her father died, Nellie was 17 years old and in Standard Eight. Suddenly, she found herself in poverty and dropped out of school. She ended up marrying.

“It’s a pity that things have to end this way. My father had everything but his relatives started grabbing every property they could find and in the end, I have been left with nothing,” said Nellie, who is living on the farm with her family.

Documents show that Namaona had a house in Gravellia Avenue on plot number CC 5221; a building in Blantyre containing four flats on first floor and four shops at the bottom on plot number BC 103; Acroplis building in Limbe with two shops at the basement, first floor flat and offices and boys quarters behind the building. This is on plot number CC 456.

Plot number CC 540 had Gabro Building along Masauko Chipembere Highway with offices and a warehouse. Namaona also had nine shops at Number One.

One of them is where Chipiku Stores is. But now, nothing is left and, in a free-for-all plunder, every family member sold whatever they could lay their hands on.

The person accused of selling Namaona’s property is his nephew Sosten Batoni.

But Sosten told Nation on Sunday that every family member is to blame for the collapse of the estate.

“If they accuse me of plundering the estate, then every family member should be accused because everyone took some property,” argued Sosten.

He admitted selling three properties which were on plots BC 103, CC 456 and CC 540 in Blantyre, saying “nanenso ndimati ndinyambiteko [I also wanted to have a share of the property].

Other family members, though, blame Sosten for the looting, especially after he took over as manager of the estate.

But Sosten said selling of the property started well before he took over management.

“In fact, before I took over, family members were getting K350 from rentals but when I came in, they were getting thousands. And when I came in, people had already started selling the property,” he said.

Daveson Namaona, one of the late Namaona’s brothers, admitted selling a shop at Number One. He claimed to have sold it at K2 million (US$5405).

Namaona’s family

The late Namaona was born in a family of seven; five boys and two girls. The boys were Namaona himself, Nedson, Davison, Walla and Dafter while the girls were Neya and Saliyeje.

When he was alive, he was working with Nedson who was in charge of machinery because of his technical background while Namaona focused on the operations of the estate.

Nation on Sunday visited Nedson who is living at Laiti Village in T/A Bvumbwe in Thyolo.

When Namaona died on April 15 1985, Nedson continued running his brother’s estate. He recalled that a few years after Namaona’s death, a board of trustees was formed to run the estate.

The board comprised the late Namaona’s two wives, Janet and Emily, and brothers Nedson and Davison. At the time, Eric Batoni was manager of the estate.

Janet and Emily Namaona died later.

When Eric died, Sosten took over. Some family members believe that this was when things began to go wrong, an accusation Sosten denies.

Nedson, who is now in his 80s, does not know who is in control of the estate, claiming that he is being by-passed. He also does not know who was signing the cheques, saying he is a signatory.

“I am also failing to understand,” said Nedson at his home in Bvumbwe, “that I can’t get money to buy milk as per doctors’ instruction, yet my brother had all the wealth.”

Legal administrators

When Namaona was alive, A.R Osman was his lawyer. He continued to administer the estate after his death.

Suddenly, he stopped. In an interview, Osman said family members told him to stop administering the estate.

“It was their estate and I was only administering it. They [family members] asked me to stop and I handed everything to them,” he said.

Nedson said although he disagreed with Osman because he would not easily release money for tractors’ spare parts, he was against the idea of stopping him from administering the estate.

“But Sosten came to me more than three times about the need to remove Osman and I succumbed in the end,” he said.

Sosten admitted removing Osman as administrator, saying he did not agree with his management style.

From there, the estate papers went to Mbendera and Nkhono Associates. After sometime, they were taken away.

Sosten admitted removing Mbendera and Nkhono Associates as administrators, saying they were fed up with the differences rocking the family.

But records at Mbendera and Nkhono Associates show that on October 15 2002 Sosten wrote a letter informing the law firm that Jeoffs Real Estate Agency had been appointed to take over revenue [mostly rentals] collection and that he would consider appointing another legal adviser.

Mbendera and Nkhono Associates ended the marriage there and then.

Records also show that some family members wrote the legal firm asking why it had stopped administering the estate.

The plundering begins

From Mbendera and Nkhono Associates, the Ntchefu and Nansongole Estate papers were kept by Sosten. Practically, that meant he kept all the papers for houses and the farm.

But Sosten insisted that he only sold three houses and had nothing to do with the sale of the rest of the property.

When told that houses could not be sold by anyone other than him because he had the papers, Sosten claimed they were stolen.

“The house I was staying in Kanjedza was broken into by family members. They took everything, including the documents for houses,” he said.

This resulted in selling all the property by whoever got hold of the documents for a particular building.

But now, some family members are fighting to sell the last deceased property, the farm, and the buyers (name withheld) have already been identified.

Nellie is left with only one assignment: to fight the sale of the farm.