A certain man named John got traditionally married to his wife Susan back in 2011 and got wedded in December 2014. God blessed the two with Simba and John Junior, who are currently 11 and 7 years old respectively.
Career-wise, John was an Accountant at a prestigious local company. Through his hard work, John bought two homes, one in Mabvazuva and the other one in Sandton. He acquired both properties in 2016.
When 2017 started, John and his family were on a row and seemed unstoppable until tragedy struck later that year. On his way from a business trip, John was involved in a fatal car accident that took his life right on the spot.
After John was buried, Susan, John’s widow, assumed ownership of the properties as she was the surviving spouse. As fate would have it, Susan chose to remarry in 2018 after mourning her late husband for a year.
The guy Susan married was named Tonderai, an unemployed gentleman who lived in Harare, boys dzeTonaz!
After the two got married, Tonderai moved in with Susan into her late husbands home in Sandton. They started their family together and everything was going on well. Late John’s two surviving children were also staying with their mother Susan and their new Stepfather, Tonde.
Unfortunately, in 2019, disaster struck again and Susan was diagnosed with liver cancer; She passed on in June that same year.
Since Tonderai and Susan did not have children of their own, Tonderai was left in the care of his two stepsons, John Jnr and Simba.
For John Jnr and Simba, the unfortunate thing was that their late parents had not written a will before passing away. They continued to stay with their stepfather who married another woman, Yolanda, in December 2019. The two wedded that same month which means the two would assume co-ownership of the properties belonging to John, the late husband of Tonde’s late wife.
However, John Jr, and Simba, the surviving children of John and Susan, did not own any single piece of their late parent’s properties.
The million-dollar question we have is, “Was Tonde and Susan, who were step-parents to the kids, able to take care of the kids like what their parents did?”
Your guess is as good as mine. The poor little kids were kicked out of school and were abused daily by their step-parents.
After the push came to the shove, they had to leave their parents home and move to the rural areas of Murewa were they are now staying with their late father’s relatives.
From having to learn in ‘A’ Schools, they are now having to walk 10 km to school, unlike in the good old days when they would be dropped off and picked up at school by their late parents.
Tonde and Yolanda have taken control of John’s assets, fighting the late John’s relatives in court. Tonde claims he has a legal right to occupy the houses since he was legally married to the late Susan. The unfortunate part is that Tonde sold one of John’s cars to afford expensive lawyers who are representing him to fight late John’s relatives who cannot afford hiring lawyers.
The unfortunate events could have been avoided if John and Susan had registered a FAMILY TRUST and listed their kids as beneficiaries. This would have meant legally, the kids would have had a legal right to kick their step-parents out of the house.
Would you want your family to go through these struggles if the unfortunate were to happen to you? Then, please register a FAMILY TRUST to safeguard your property and family.
