FDD leader Edith Nawakwi’s two stepsons have asked the Lusaka High Court not to grant her an injunction to restrain them from further administering their father, Geoffrey Hambulo’s estate.

They have argued that Nawakwi is not fit to be entrusted with the administration of Hambulo’s estate because they were not married.

This is a matter in which Nawakwi has sued two of her step-children Mweemba and Mulundu in the Lusaka High Court Family Division, seeking an injunction restraining them from acting as administrators of the estate of her late husband who died on December 5, 2021.

But in an affidavit in opposition to an affidavit in support of summons for an order of interim injunction, Mulundu stated that a day before their father’s burial, Nawakwi’s family insisted that the deceased could not be buried until dowry was paid.

He stated that this was because he had not paid dowry to her family to signify the existence of a marriage and he always refused to do so while he was alive.

Mulundu agreed that his father had health conditions but said he believed that the same had no bearing on the proceedings.

“I verily believe that had the first respondent and I not been competent or eligible to obtain the letters of administration, this honourable court would not have granted us the letters of administration. The first respondent is a holder of a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration working at a bank as a multi skills sales consultant and I am a pilot. All of our siblings are all of the age majority and I verily believe that there’s no need to have a family elder to represent the interest of the deceased’s children when we are not minors,” he stated.

Mulundu stated that Nawakwi had been preventing them from having access to their father’s estate to enable them to carry out their duties as administrators.

He stated that he and Mweemba did not recognize the authenticity of the purported draft Will more so that the three paragraphs that had been removed from the draft exhibited by Nawakwi contained insulting language to the children.

“The first applicant, myself and our other siblings had a good relationship with our father thus, it was shocking that the purported draft Will contained insults directed at the deceased’s children. I verily believe that in the circumstances of this case, this is not an appropriate case to grant an interim injunction and I verily believe that the applicant is not a fit person to be entrusted with the administration of the deceased. There is a high likelihood that more of the deceased’s property will be misappropriated or dissipated by the applicant and the intended beneficiary will not have full access to the estate by the time the matter is concluded in this honorable court,” stated Mulundu.