DIVIDED OVER BOSWA: Family drifts apart since Abdull’s death

A visibly emotional Webster Masenya, the father of Dawn Masenya who has taken her aunt and cousins to court over her grandparents’ estate has told the court that the family has bitterly drifted apart. They used to be a well-knit family but ever since his daughter went to court to query the authenticity of her late grandfather’s Will the relationship changed to one of hostility. Masenya’s wife Yolinda died in 2002 leaving behind three children Theo, Renee, and Dawn. His mother-in-law Doreen Joseph died in 2008 and her husband Abdull in 2012.

“We were very close. The relationship was very cordial and very warm. They were very proud of my children and the children were always visiting them even after my wife died. “My wife was taking good care of her parents so they were like parents to me. All I got from them was love, appreciation, and acceptance,” Webster said. But ever since the death of the old man in 2012, it has been one battle after another simply because Dawn is not happy with a Will that Anna Mokgethi - Joseph’s lawyer and executrix - presented to the family. The Will left nothing for Dawn and her siblings, not even her late mother Yolinda. The entire inheritance belongs to Yolinda’s sister Shereen Pandor and her children. “I remember how in the past we lived with one of my sister-in-law’s children, they stayed with us for a few years while schooling in Gaborone. That is how close we were,” Webster said, adding that his father-in-law always encouraged the children including his to get an education. “He sometimes paid part of Dawn’s fees while she was studying in the United States of America. I mostly paid for my children’s flight tickets but there was a point when their grandfather did it as he wanted to see them. Renee was coming from Malaysia and Dawn from the US,” Webster said. But even when they were abroad, Masenya’s children constantly kept in touch with their grandparents as much as they could. That is why it came as a big surprise to them when Abdull’s Will signed in 2010 excluded his children. This is why his daughter Dawn suspects that her grandfather if indeed he made the Will, was sick and not capable of appreciating the nature and effect of executing the said Will. Asked to tell the court about his father-in-law’s health condition before he died, Webster Masenya said that he knew that the old man was unwell. “He was forgetful he asked questions that implied that he was unwell. At one point he said he thought I was dead and from how he said it I got concerned. “I approached Mokgethi sharing with her my concerns because I knew she was his lawyer. And she promised that she would go to see him, that was in December 2008 but when I asked her later on if she had seen the old man she said no,” Masenya recounted. He added that for a good part of 2009, his father-in-law’s health deteriorated so much that he could not even drive. When he asked Shereen’s husband why the old man could not drive, he told him that they had instructed the licensing office not to give Abdull a license as he could get lost because of his forgetfulness.

“He was physically frail and every time I asked about his health I heard that he was on and off. He was alleged to have the tendency of getting up and walking around the yard in the dark, He would repeat himself in conversation also,” he said.

The case continues ……