Johannesburg – Radio and television icon Azania Mosaka and her mother Ouma Mosaka are embroiled in a legal battle with her late father’s second wife over the division of their joint estate.
The Radio 702 talk show host and her mother have obtained an urgent court interdict in the Joburg High Court to stop her step-mother Felicity Mosaka and the Master of the High Court from disposing of, alienating, liquidating, distributing, and administering the estate of her late father Rabotapi Mosaka.
The estate includes immovable properties, businesses, and insurance policies.
After the interdict was granted in November last year, the court ordered the former Metro FM presenter, Ouma, and Felicity to file papers within three months for the matter to be heard in a normal court.
In the interdict application, which is in our possession, the former Power FM talk show host said her parents were married in community of property and she was the only child born out of the union in 1977.
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She said her parents separated and her mother, who now lives in Pimville, Soweto, vacated their matrimonial house in Alberton and did not ask for the division of their joint estate.
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She said when her father died on July 11 last year, Felicity was appointed executor of the estate by the Master of the Joburg High Court.
She said at the time of reporting and lodging it, the estate was reported to be intestate as her father did not have a will. She said after the estate was advertised intestate on August 28 last year in a daily newspaper, Felicity approached the Master of the High Court and lodged a will on September 30.
She said the will, which was dated December 13 2019, being the date it was executed, was suspicious because at the time her father was purported to have drawn it, he was languishing in hospital suffering from dementia.
“Accordingly, he could not be fit to execute the said will. I thus dispute that he had the requisite mental capacity to draw and execute the said will. I also dispute the signature passed as his,” reads her application.
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She said she would call a handwriting expert to testify at the trial to determine the authenticity of the signature on the disputed will, adding that she would also bring medical evidence to show that her father was mentally incapacitated at the time the disputed will was drafted.
Azania further said because her parents were separated, her mother has a right to lay a claim on the estate, especially on their Alberton house, noting she, too, stood to benefit as an heir should the estate be administered intestate because if not so, she would suffer irreparable harm. When contacted by Sunday World, Azania declined to comment and said it was a private matter.
In her responding affidavit, Felicity said the deceased had sufficient capacity to conclude a valid will, saying he drafted and signed it in the presence of two witnesses who were admitted attorneys.
Felicity said the will was not fraudulent as it was signed and dated December 13 2019, and Rabotapi was only diagnosed with dementia in February last year.
Three days after executing the will, she and Rapotapi attended his brother’s birthday party and his marriage on December 24, where the deceased signed as a witness in the presence other witnesses.
She added that Azania and her mother should have gone to the Master of the High Court instead of going to court to challenge the validity of the will.
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This because the Master of the High Court, and not the Joburg High Court, has sole jurisdiction of dealing with the administration of the estate.
She said the deceased had the right to dispose of his estate as supported by the principle of freedom of testation, and she had the automatic right to inherit the estate as the surviving spouse because they were married in community of property, noting that Azania wanted the estate devolved intestate so she could benefit and that would not happen as it would be wound up in accordance with the deceased last will and testament.
She also said Azania’s mother claimed that she was divorced from the deceased but had failed to submit a decree of divorce and settlement agreement.
It is not known when the matter will be heard in court. Ouma and Felicity could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print.
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