WIFE WINS HALF OF MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ESTATE AFTER HUSBAND HIDES HOUSES IN FAMILY TRUST
WIFE WINS HALF OF MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ESTATE AFTER HUSBAND HIDES HOUSES IN FAMILY TRUST
Daughter sues father for US$12K UK varsity fees
By Fanuel Viriri
A Harare couple that built a multi-million dollar estate during 19-years marriage will share it 50/50 after the High Court found the husband tried to hide assets in a Family Trust and weaponised their children during the divorce.
High Court Family Division Judge Emilia Muchawa found the husband Vengai Mugabe acted “mala fide” (in bad faith) and punished him with costs on the legal practitioner-client scale, the highest punitive scale.
He was ordered to pay almost all of his wife’s actual legal bill, not just the portion normally recoverable in court. In divorce cases each party normally bears its own costs on a party-and-party scale. Costs on a practitioner-client scale are only awarded for bad faith conduct.
In Mugabe vs Mugabe HH 46-26, the court heard the parties had been together since August 2006 and solemnised their marriage on 28 August 2010. The Mugabe case is a classic rags-to-riches tale, started with nothing but built an empire, until they was trouble in paradise with the husband hiding things to the wife according to the court papers and the marriage broke down.
They built a portfolio that included *** Avenue, Mt Pleasant valued at US$400,000, Stands ***and *** Lingfield in Gweru, Section *** flat in South Africa, Stand *** Strathaven, ** Sikavakadzi, Mufakose, Subdivision 2 of Wicklow in Chegutu, *** Cockington Road, Mandara valued at US$210,000, Mademolle property in South Africa valued at R2.5 million and 46 head of cattle.
The wife Yeukai Mugabe, 42, now a marketing director in Harare , had quit her Standard Chartered Bank management trainee programme eight months in to follow her husband to Zambia with a one-and-a-half-year-old child. She spent two and a half years without a job, rearing 500 chickens per batch in partnership with a friend and selling clothes, shoes and handbags.
The husband, 45, worked in Zambia from 2008 as a finance manager, returned in 2013, worked at the University of Zimbabwe until 2018, then Afghanistan from July 2018 to October 2019. Up to October 2024, according to his evidence, he was employed as Distribution Manager at Innscor before resigning voluntarily.
At trial the husband argued he contributed 92 percent, later revised to 87 percent to the Mt Pleasant house, and produced ledgers recording tomatoes, bananas and nzungu groundnuts worth one dollar.
Justice Muchawa dismissed it:
“This was a poor investment of time and energy. There has to be no obvious and compelling reason for the court’s departure from the overarching principle of equality in the sharing of property,” she said, citing Usayi v Usayi SC 22/24.
“The sooner married couples realise that marriage is not a business arrangement where they come together in matrimony for convenience to acquire property separately while keeping receipts and other documents for future use in court, the better for everyone.”
The court found direct and indirect contributions balanced out equally.
The judge found the husband attempted to withdraw concessions made at the joint pre-trial conference where he had agreed to custody to the mother, US$200 per child per month and full school fees up to tertiary.
He gave notice to **** and **** (schools reductated to protect the minor children identity) to withdraw the two minor children to government schools without the custodial mother’s consent, collected rent exclusively from the jointly-owned Mt Pleasant house and the Reopark flat while divorce was pending, and refused to produce lease agreements, forcing the tenant, The Growing Tree, to be subpoenaed.
Though entitled to 50% of rentals from Mt Pleasant, the wife had not received it. The tenant representative testified rent was US$2 900 per month, while the husband said he collected US$2000. The court calculated he retained between US$96 000 and US$106 800 from 2021 to 31 August 2024, when an interim order was issued.
He is also in receipt of rentals from Rio Park at R4 100 nett per month, totalling R66 528 per annum, R510 048 from 2018 to date, plus US$1500 per month from Mandara since June 2023 and R13 500 per month for Mademolle from August 2024.
On disputed assets, the court declared Subdivision *** Wicklow not an asset as no offer letter or joint venture agreement with **** was produced, Stand *** Strathaven belongs to the Fontaine Family Trust but granted the wife usufructuary rights, and ** Sikavakadzi, Mufakose belongs to the Vengai Mugabe Family Trust.
The 46 cattle were held to be matrimonial assets after the court rejected three changing versions – that they were donated to a joint venture, belonged to his late father, and were bequeathed to the Family Trust by a will written in July 2023 after summons.
“How then could the late father donate cattle which were already donated to the joint venture in which the father was not a party? It appears to me that the defendant was weaving his story as the matter progressed,” the judge said.
The two houses bought after separation, No *** Cockington, Mandara bought in June 2023 and Mademolle bought in August 2024, remain matrimonial assets despite being registered under the Family Trust in terms of Chombo v Chombo and Gonye v Gonye.
The final distribution was ordered 50/50. The wife was awarded Stand *** Groombridge Township, Mt Pleasant (***), Stand *** Lingfield measuring 9,000 square metres and 23 cattle, plus usufruct over Strathaven. The husband was awarded Section ** Reopark, South Africa, Stand ** Lingfield, ** Cockington, Mandara and Mademolle, South Africa, plus 23 cattle.
Transfer is to be effected within 90 days and failure to sign within seven days authorises the Sheriff to sign. The Sheriff is also authorised to supervise delivery of cattle.
Custody of the two minor children, *** born 24 February 2012 and *** born 27 May 2017, was awarded to the mother with access to the father on alternate weekends, public holidays, half term and half school holidays, alternating major holidays.
Maintenance was ordered at US$200 per child per month until majority or completion of A-Level or self-supporting, whichever comes first. The father is to settle the entire school account including fees, boarding, uniforms, extra lessons, extra-curricular and trips, and to pay full tertiary costs.
For the eldest child, *** born 16 November 2006, who had to file an urgent application after her father refused to fund her Speech Therapy degree at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom preferring Cape Town, the court ordered US$12,000 per annum payable directly into her university account within four to six weeks for 2025 and a month before opening each subsequent year.
The court also noted the husband has a US$323 000 award in his favour against the University of Zimbabwe, which is on appeal at the Constitutional Court. #divorce #family