Cephas Mashakada's widow and step daughters exchange blows over his estate

 

The wife of the late veteran musician, Cephas Mashakada, has been told to leave her home by Mashakada’s two daughters as the fight for his estate turns ugly.

Eunice is said to have exchanged blows with Mashakada’s two daughters – Memory and Miriam – at their Chitungwiza home during the late musician’s funeral wake.

They are reported to have clashed again at the burial in Chinhoyi. In an interview at her Chitungwiza home, Eunice said her health has been deteriorating since her husband passed away last month.

Eunice said her doctors told her that her heart was swollen and her blood pressure was very high. She said this might have been caused by the problems that she has been facing of late. Eunice said before Mashakada passed on, he told her that she was going to suffer.

“My husband could feel that he was going to die so he told me to be strong as I was going to suffer, and when I asked what he meant, he could not shed more light,” she said.

Eunice said she only got the meaning of Mashakada’s words when Memory and Miriam demanded that she leaves her matrimonial home.

“When we were in Chinhoyi for the burial of Cephas, Memory and Miriam told me straight in the face that I should vacate their father’s house.

“I felt weak and useless when Cephas’ daughters, whom I used to treat as my own children, labelled me a prostitute and suggested I had destroyed their parents’ marriage,” she said.

Eunice said she was legally married to Cephas and they got a loan from CABS to buy their house in Chitungwiza.

“I got married to Cephas in 1981 and we had a great relationship and I even sacrificed to take care of his two children from his other relationships.

“I had no children with Cephas but I was legally married to him,” she said.

She said Cephas’ daughters only visited their sick father on three occasions when he was in hospital.

“There is nothing more important than family but the girls only came to see their father three times when he was seriously ill at Chitungwiza Hospital,” she said.

Eunice said she does not have anything against her stepdaughters.

“It is not by choice that I did not have children with Cephas but that cannot be used as an excuse to take my house. They cannot push me out of this house because I have a marriage certificate and we bought this house together,” she said.

Mashakada died from kidney failure.