Mvududu v. Mvududu No and Others

Magaragada Mvududu and his wife, Rhoda Mvududu, had five sons, Mwashinga, Ngona, Enoch, Taylor, and Killion. Magaragada owned farm 227 in the Rowa Purchase area of Zimbabwe. Mwashinga and Ngona each also had farms in the Rowa Purchase area. Enoch, Taylor (plaintiff), and Killion did not have their own farms but built houses on farm 227. In 1951 Enoch had a son, John (defendant). In 1967 Magaragada began preparing for his death. Magaragada gathered his family together and announced that Mwashinga, as his eldest son, would be his heir, following African customary law, and Mwashinga would therefore become the head of the family, look after his parents, and receive his father’s property upon his father’s death to hold for the benefit of the family. At the time, a person could be the record owner of only one Rowa Purchase farm, so Mwashinga could not be the record owner of farm 227. Magaragada therefore planned to transfer farm 227 to Enoch as the record owner, with Mwashinga managing farm 227 on the family’s behalf. Before Magaragada could do so, he died. The district commissioner transferred farm 227 to Enoch, incorrectly certifying that Enoch was Magaragada’s heir at customary law. When Enoch died in 1977, John attempted to transfer farm 227 into his name. The family obtained an interdict restraining John from doing so pending a court proceeding. John, contradicting the testimony of all other family members, claimed that Magaragada named Enoch as his customary heir because Enoch had helped pay for and fence the farm. Mwashinga, incorrectly believing that the restriction on owning multiple Rowa Purchase farms still existed, proposed that Taylor, as the next son in line after Enoch, should become the record owner of farm 227. Ella Manyengawana, the sabuku of the local area, testified. A sabuku was the local expert on and arbiter of matters of African customary law. Manyengawana testified when a father inherits property from his own father, the property transfers to the eldest son, and when the eldest son dies, the property passes to the eldest son’s next brother, and so on down the line of brothers.