The family of a late businesswoman is pushing for for the arrest of top lawyer Wilson Manase whom they accuse of abusing her estate after she died in 2002.
Manase is also accused of abusing the estate by selling and renting out properties belonging to Jane Maisiri’s estate without consulting her family members.
He was allegedly not remitting the funds to the beneficiaries and failed to account for money in Maisiri’s offshore account.
Manase of Manase and Manase Legal Practitioners was appointed executor of the late Maisiri’s estate.
Maisiri’s son, Tongai Mhlanga, filed a complaint against Manase with the LSZ, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) alleging that the executor failed to account for some of the estate’s property.
On August 16 Manase was picked up by the police’s Commercial Crime Division at Tomlinson Depot for questioning.
He was released the same day with the law enforcement agents ordering him to bring some documents for further investigations into the estate dispute.
Before he was picked, the LSZ had given him a 14-day ultimatum to explain why he had failed to finalise the execution of the estate..
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This was after it had received a letter from the master of the High Court telling the LSZ that Manase had failed to give his office a satisfactory explanation.
The Master of the High Court said immovable properties on the inventory were not dealt with in the authorised liquidation and distribution accounts.
The master also said he was yet to receive any proof of transfer of the properties from the executor or acquaintances from the beneficiaries to enable him to retire the bond of security and also close the record.
He accused Manase of failing to give a satisfactory explanation as to why it had taken so long for him to transfer the assets to the beneficiaries as per the approved distribution accounts.
In his response to the LSZ dated August 8, Manase claimed that he had finalised the estate long back as confirmed by the liquidation and distribution account.
He said movable properties were not handed to him. He also claimed that the beneficiaries had already taken occupation of their properties and what remained was the transfer of the titles.
However, Maisiri’s son, Tongai insists that he has not yet accessed his property, which is situated on No 299 Samora Machel Avenue. According to documents, Manase’s son, Charemedza, is occupying the property.
On another property, 50RE, Pine Street, Marondera, the Maisiri family claimed Manase recorded it under the wrong address, 49B on the inventory. This, according to the family, means the property was not distributed.
Documents held under the Marondera Municipality showed that Maisiri is the owner of 50RE. The documents are, howeve,r kept in various files at the local authority.
In his response to LSZ, Manase claimed he did not get the documents regarding Maisisiri’s foreign accounts, but the Maisiri family insists they handed over the bank books to him.
The family said money amounting to US$423 million that was in the deceased’s local bank accounts, Barclays and Stanbic was also not distributed.
According to an inventory dated December 8 2005, Maisiri had $421 million in her Barclays account and another $2.7 million in treasury bills held by Stanbic Bank.
In 2010, Manase claimed that he gave $ 18,000 to Frank Maisiri according to a distribution agreement he entered with all the beneficiaries of Maisiri’s estate. He, however, did not produce the agreement.
According to the distribution record produced by Manase, one Aaron Golden Shamu was listed as the beneficiary of Stand number 7537 of Salisbury Township, 17 Manitoba, Braeside, which he allegedly purchased from the diseased before her death, but details show that the house was supposed to be sold to clear all debts including the master’s fees.
However, the agreement of sale between Shamu and Manase’s office shows that the former bought the house in 2011, about nine years after the businesswoman’s death.
Shamu has not yet accessed the property since 2011 and documents show that Manase went one to sell the same house to someone else.
Some of the beneficiaries who accessed their properties do not have title deeds 22 years after the death of their mother. Manase acknowledged this anomaly in his letter to the LSZ.
