Secret life ends in court battle over property
Women ‘married’ to same man both claim valuable real estate
davidsn@sundaytimes.co.za
● She was married to her husband for more than 50 years, worked by his side to build up their paraffin business and bore him three children — only to discover after his death that he had led a double life with a younger woman.
Now, 75-year-old Ephenia Broodie has embarked on a legal battle for a multimillion-rand property on Cape Town’s Atlantic seaboard, which her late husband, Samuel Broodie, left to his bookkeeper, Mokgohu Martha Ledwaba, 60, and their two children.
Papers filed in the High Court in Cape Town and the Supreme Court of Appeal overflow with allegations of corruption, secrets, wealth and intrigue.
Ephenia, from Soshanguve in Pretoria, married Broodie in 1967. Ledwaba, who is from Dennilton, started her affair with the businessman when she was in her 20s. They entered into a customary marriage in 1988 without Ephenia’s knowledge.
The parties in the legal battle have accepted that the customary marriage is legally invalid because of Broodie’s earlier civil marriage to Ephenia.
Ledwaba said Broodie paid for their two children’s private schooling and university education, and claimed he divided his time between the two families and promised to make separate provision for them.
He conducted his affairs in a “patriarchal” manner and earmarked the Sea Point property — owned by a close corporation called Seepunt Eiendomme and valued at about R12-million — for Ledwaba.
Broodie died intestate in 2016 and Ephenia became his executor, discovering that in May 2014 Ledwaba and her two children had each received a 25% stake in Seepunt Eiendomme, with Broodie retaining 25%. But in the same month, Ephenia said, her husband had suffered a stroke and was in a “problematic mental state”.
In court papers alleging the transaction was fraudulent, she said: “My husband never discussed this transaction with me and I doubt whether he was aware of [it]. How he could have signed any members’ transfer forms also boggles the mind.”
In mid-2015 a psychiatrist found that Broodie showed signs of dementia.
After learning about the transfer to the Ledwabas, Ephenia asked about income from the property, which contains three flats and a shop tenanted by Bootlegger Coffee Company. “The one unit is being utilised by [Ledwaba’s son Kgothatso Theodor] but it is not clear whether [he] is paying rent or not,” said Ephenia, who said the son worked at the coffee shop.
On February 19, in the High Court in Cape Town, Judge Ashley Binns-Ward found that despite the fact that Ephenia had been married in community of property, it was not incumbent on Ledwaba or her children to “investigate the legal character” of Broodie’s first marriage before she accepted the donation from him.
Ephenia’s lawyer, Willem van Heerden from Van Wyk Van Heerden Attorneys, said they were considering an appeal.
Ephenia obtained an order to appoint an auditor to manage the affairs of Seepunt Eiendomme. And Ledwaba and her children have to reveal the financials of the company because Ephenia is concerned they might be “secreting funds or hiding something”. Ledwaba launched an appeal against this ruling in the appeal court but on Thursday her application failed.
Now a court fight looms over whether the Ledwabas fraudulently acquired their stake in the company. A court will also be asked to determine Broodie’s mental competence when he signed off on the gift.
The Ledwabas’ lawyer, Hugo van Heerden, said they did not want to comment as they considered the case private.
Broodie’s burial in 2016 was a spectacular event organised by his family’s funeral parlour, which has facilitated several high-profile burials, including those of actor Joe Mafela, musician Thandi Klaasen and government spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa.
For Broodie’s burial, the company said on Facebook, a “statue of Mr Samuel Broodie was delivered by helicopter”. — Additional reporting by Dan Meyer