A bitter legal battle over David Mabuza’s R44m pension has laid bare an ugly family feud littered with allegations that his widow committed fraud by obtaining a marriage certificate after his death.
This is contained in papers by Emunah Silinda — who claims to be Mabuza’s customary wife — and her daughter, Tamara, filed at the Mpumalanga high court asking it to halt the distribution of the late deputy president’s millions by Alexforbes until they have both had their rights enforced as beneficiaries.
In her affidavit, Tamara said at the time of Mabuza’s death, he was married to her mother under customary law and that the marriage is still valid. She also challenged the legality of the marriage certificate produced by Mabuza’s widow, Nonhlanhla Patience Mnisi, saying she obtained it after her father’s death
“The first respondent [Mnisi] claims to be the deceased’s wife and has produced a marriage certificate obtained posthumously from the department of home affairs. We challenge the legality of this certificate as no valid marriage could have been concluded or registered after death.”
I am not an opportunist, but we have to enforce our rights in line with the constitution,” she said in the court papers. “A right to equal treatment and a right to benefit from the estate, and a right to be supported by the deceased through the equal distribution of the estate.
— Emunah Silinda
According to Silinda, she is Mabuza’s surviving spouse of a relationship entered into and recognised in terms of the customary laws of SA. She says she met Mabuza in January 1999, got married in August the same year, and their only child, Tamara, was born in October the following year.
“I am not an opportunist, but we have to enforce our rights in line with the constitution,” she said in the court papers. “A right to equal treatment and a right to benefit from the estate, and a right to be supported by the deceased through the equal distribution of the estate.
“There was never an order declaring the dissolution of the customary marriage between the deceased and I. Therefore, the validity of our customary marriage with the inclusion of accrual still subsists. Thus, we remain lawfully married in community of property in terms of customary law.”
Silinda said that while they were separated at the time of Mabuza’s death in July, they were still husband and wife because their marriage was never dissolved.
She was not aware of any existing marriage he had before her customary marriage to Mabuza.
“My marriage to the late DD Mabuza is never a fabrication and is well known within and outside the borders of SA. When the deceased passed, we were on separation but never divorced,” Silinda argued.
Silinda applied to the court to recognise her marriage to Mabuza posthumously as a valid customary marriage, even though she does not have a lobola letter. Her late father had it, but he died last year, she said.
In her court papers, Tamara asked for an interim maintenance support of R40,000 for monthly living expenses and a further R127,990 for her tuition fees at the University of Cape Town, where she is a first-year medical student.
Mabuza’s sudden death resulted in her loss of support and basic necessities, including tuition fees, she said.
Her mother is unemployed and had not made provisions for her needs at the time of Mabuza’s death, and can’t help her meet her financial needs, Tamara argued.
Tamara challenged the nomination of Mnisi as the sole beneficiary of the pension fund, saying it unjustly excluded other dependants.
“[For Mnisi] to benefit exclusively from the deceased R44m annuity would unjustly exclude other lawful dependants, particularly me, a major dependant.”
A notice of birth from home affairs shows that Mabuza acknowledged and signed on October 14 2000 that he was Tamara’s father.
Tamara also challenged the validity of the beneficiary nomination form “on the basis that her [Mnisi’s] status as the deceased’s alleged surviving spouse is founded upon fraud or misrepresentation”.
Mnisi was also accused of denying Mabuza’s dependents access to his family home and grave.
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