Feature
By Frazer Potani, Lilongwe, Malawi

Soon after his body is buried seven deep in the ground at Henry Hendreson Institute in Blantyre City, a lorry goes to Mount Pleasant Township where the deceased’s relatives quickly sweep the whole rooms and fill the vehicle with all the property from his house leaving his widow and four children empty handed.

The man died just few days ago after along time battle with cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes at Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre and left no will.

He left property including bank accounts that would have otherwise, enabled the woman and children behind live a comfortable life after their breadwinner’s death.
Social for the Advancement of Women (SAW) Executive Director Catherine Munthali said the practice of property grabbing is increasing in Malawi.

“The tendency to grab the deceased property permeates throughout the Malawian society, women being prime victims. Stories of relatives of the deceased persons grabbing property from widows are widespread,” said Munthali.

She said the problem is likely to continue unless Malawians are enlightened that property grabbing is against the law and a violation of human rights.

On her part Chief Law Reform Officer for Malawi Law Commission (MLC), Fiona Mwale said property grabbing cases were increasing in Malawi because many people were ignorant on how to right a will.

A will spells out how one would wish his/her property left after death shared to his/her dependants.

“99 percent of people in Malawi have no wills therefore, Malawians need to be encouraged to write wills to assure themselves that their property would, after they die be protected from perpetrators of property grabbing. The danger of not writing a will is that one’s property would go to those who were not entitled to benefit from a deceased estate,” said Mwale.

She disclosed that for a will to be valid it has to be written by any person at least 21 years old and mentally sound at the time the will is written.

“ A will is a formal document in writing before a person dies spelling out his or her wishes on the distribution of his or her property. A person may write the will themselves or ask someone else to do it for them. The author of the will must sign it, there must be two witnesses to the author’s act of signing,” said Mwale.

She added that the two witnesses must also sign the will in the presence of each other.

“The two witnesses need not to know the contents of the will -they are witnesses to the author’s signature,” said Mwale.

The lawyer further said a will should also bear a date but “the later will in time takes precedence over all others”

She also disclosed that there are some people who should not benefit from a will.

Mwake said these are witnesses to the will or their spouse.

She however, said under a new law witnesses may benefit if no person could have witnesses on the will, there is a fair benefit, there is no fraud, coercion, undue influence and there is no court order against the will.

Mwale however, was quick to say that the killer of the author of the will can not benefit from the will.

“The person who is also proved to have influenced the author of the will to leave to him or her property is not supposed to benefit. The divorced spouse of the author, however, can benefit from the will unless the will allows the benefit,” said Mwale.

According to the new law Mwale clarified that after one has written a will he or she can keep it at the Office of the Registrar of High Court, District Commissioner, Resident Magistrate, First Grade Magistrate, Bank, Insurer, Administrator of Provident Fund and one’s own employer.

She said her office only made recommendations and therefore, they were subject to be changed to meet the needs of Malawians at large after wider consultations with all stakeholders.

The Administrator General (AG)’s office says unwillingness by Malawians to write wills before they die and disclose their salaries to their families were posing challenges to the distribution of property from deceased estates to the intended beneficiaries.

“People expect to receive more than what is due to them,” said Deputy AG Gaston Mwenelupembe.

He added that the development was bringing misunderstandings between the beneficiaries and his office.

The Gender Women and Child Development Ministry says stakeholders including Members of Parliament were asked to contribute their input before laws were to be made to punish perpetrators of property grabbing in Malawi.

The legislators were among other things, asked to support the Wills and Inheritance Bill to become a law to protect victims of property grabbing including women and children and punish perpetrators of property grabbing.

The Wills and Inheritance Act commenced in March 2003 and its review finalized in December the same year.

The Ministry submitted the report to Cabinet Committee on Constitution and Legal Affairs and it was waiting for consideration.

If Cabinet acceded to the MLC recommendations, a Government Bill was to be developed accordingly for the consideration and possible enactment by Parliament.

The Ministry says Members of Parliament were consulted on the matter because they live with people in their areas everyday and these people have the power to influence the change of their constituents.

It further says property grabbing is taking place in all the constituencies in Malawi and unless all Members of Parliament support the bill to become a law women and children would continue suffering while perpetrators of property grabbing enjoying on their expense.

However, Machinga South Member of Parliament Harry Kamba said if the law against property grabbing was to win massive support it should not be bias towards women but be equal to all.

‘Frankly speaking the Wills and Inheritance Act is a very good bill because it will prevent some lazy people who wait for others die to grab property. If however, the law only spells out with more emphasis on protecting women it could easily lose its support because not only women and children fall victims of this evil practice but also men. Therefore, the law needs to be equally applied to everyone,” said Kamba.

Property grabbing is indeed an evil because big thirsty for it can even claim lives.

In Lilongwe police arrested a 56-year-old woman after allegedly confessing to hiring some people for K1 million to kill her husband in December 2007 on suspicion that he was seeing other women after a hefty retirement package.

The suspect, Catherine Mangulu Mnthawanji was arrested on allegations that she confessed that she arranged for the killng of her late 65-year-old husband, Mark Mnthawanji, who was one of the Senior Managers at Malawi Telecommunications Ltd (MTL) in Lilongwe before his retirement.

Gender Women and Child Development Ministry Principal Secretary (PS) Olive Chikankheni said property grabbing was one single evil practice infringing a lot of pain on children in Malawi.

She said for instance, property grabbing cripples children’s future because it also contributes to school drop outs.

“In most cases the grabbed property also includes resources for children’s education and without these children have no choice but drop out of school,” she said.

On her part UNFPA Resident Representative in Malawi, Esperance Fundira said property grabbing also creates hunger especially when land is grabbed from women because they make over 70 out of every 100 farmers in the country.

“Losing land, housing and other assets leads to further impoverishment of households. Widows particularly in the rural areas who have been stripped of land have very few economic options to safeguard their livelihoods and that of their children,” said Fundira.

She added: “Often this leaves women with no alternative but to engage in risky survival strategies for money, housing and food and puts them at higher risk of contacting HIV and AIDS.”