‘... sometimes you feel like assaulting someone’
MBABANE – Zee Masuku says they approached the chief justice (CJ), former Justice Minister Edgar Hillary, Liqoqo and the late Prince Masitsela got involved.
Zee said despite the people they sought assistance from, the estate has still not been wound up and the problems still existed. Zee and Lobusuku were emotional and the commission had to take a 10-minute break.
Lobusuku also said: “The young ladies in these offices treat us like we are nothing. Our mother went to the CJ and he didn’t even acknowledge her. Make said she felt he was condescending.
“When you arrive in these offices they look at you like you don’t matter. The younger they are, the more they don’t understand. In these offices we are not treated like human beings. Sometimes you feel like assaulting someone. In these offices they looked at my mother like she didn’t exist. Sometimes we shielded my mother from some of these meetings. The collusion is another matter on its own,” said Lobusuku.
According to Lobusuku, between lawyers and the Master’s Office, something needs to happen, because people will kill each other.
“Something needs to be done about the association of the master, lawyers in the estates. I wonder why estates have to be wound up this way. There is collusion. If we looked after our mother’s property, why should an outsider be involved? Kunebungani. They went to school together. The lawyers and master’s officers studied together,” alleged Lobusuku.
Meanwhile, Manzini Assistant Master Makhosazane Mdluli said the family needed help. She said the family was divided and there were two camps and they even never went together to the Master’s Office. She alleged that the animosity reached a point where one group allegedly took their mother and kept her among them to the exclusion of the other faction.
“As an office, we realised that the family needs help. We have tried to assist this family. I tried to help them and I realised that their squabbles run deep. I am trying to show that the problems that they are complaining about were not caused by the master.
The problems are in the family. Their mother and the other group had not seen her,” said Mdluli.
She continued to say: “It was difficult for us to help them. The property (Trelawney house) was sold to pay bills but the bills were not paid. Tee took us to court and said we sold the property without their knowledge. He said the bills were never settled and they had prescribed.” Lobusuku said the bills had not all prescribed. She alleged that Tee wanted the bills to be prescribed and it was not correct that bills were not paid. Mdluli continued to tell the commission that in 2013, their mother gave Zanele and Lobusuku power of attorney. She said the faction that took the master to court accused the other of taking their mother and not paying the bills. Lobusuku is said to have stated that the money was for their mother’s upkeep. The money, according to Mdluli, allegedly did not serve the purpose it was released by master for.
The assistant master stated that the mother, became she was incapable of carrying on her duties as the executrix in her husband’s estate due to being indisposed and Lobusuku assumer her duties on an acting basis.
“We tried to explain to Lobusuku that it would not be okay for her be acting executrix because her siblings in the other faction would take the master to court. Lobusuku refused to step down so we could find someone else,” said Mdluli.
Zee said they were open to selling the house property and dividing proceeds.