One of Zimbabwe’s oldest law firms based in Harare, Wintertons Legal Practitioners, has been fingered and reported to authorities on a case involving the forgery of the will document of the late, Mr Innocent Katsiga whose assets reportedly worth millions of dollars remains mysterious under their control.
To date Wintertons have avoided answering questions on the whereabouts of the late Mr Katsiga’s original will, only referring our reporter to an employee in the firm who is not a lawyer, one Bongani Machirori. Senior lawyers of the firm have refused to respond to questions with secretaries referring this publication to the said Mrs. Machirori.

When contacted by phone, Machirori further fanned the flame of controversy as she refused to answer and referred our reporter back to her bosses.
“I am an employee. I cannot answer questions,” she told our reporter.
Despite Wintertons’ Pichanick being named as Executor, the case was delegated to Machirori, the firm’s clerk, ZimEye can reveal.
“The original will is with the Master Of The High Court,” she stated. But efforts to get the original will through the Master have been futile.
“Can you phone our office numbers. I am not the right person to talk to,” she said contradicting her own bosses who had referred our reporter to her as the one handling the matter.
When asked about details of the distribution of the estate and in particular the assets and liabilities account, she replied:
“Who is concerned about that?”
“I cannot answer questions., ” she reiterated.
But when contacted by this paper on Monday, the firm’s senior partner Alwyn Pichanick, said he knows nothing of the matter and only Machirori knows better. “I don’t know anything about it I am afraid,” he said. Surprisingly, Mr. Pichanick is the named Executor in the controversial will yet he referred our reporter to the law firm’s clerk.
“Our estates are handled by Bongani Machirori,” he added
A High court lawsuit on the late Mr Innocent Katsiga’s will that has three vividly different signatures of the same deceased person covering the single determining will document, has been opened. Sasha Katsiga, 9, the deceased’s son, who was kicked out of his father’s house two days after his father’s burial by the other customary law wife of deceased, has been living in a rented dilapidated single room with his biological mother  despite his father’s estate having houses, flats, assets and cash worth millions which include considerable cash stashed in UK bank accounts, is the main complainant in the case.
Sasha who attends Hartman House and rides public transport to school has been inconvenienced as his father’s estate proceeds remain not fully and openly accounted for to the satisfaction of his welfare and needs. Matching interim relief has not been available through Wintertons. His sibling who also attends the same school, Hartman House, and lives at the Gunhill house still enjoys the same quality of life he enjoyed prior to his father’s death. His father left a fleet of cars and yet Sasha has been given an immobile decrepit vehicle that needs costly mechanical repairs. He receives a paltry $400 to use for his upkeep per month through the High Court guardian’s fund. To date, a copy of the original will, reportedly left in the custody of Wintertons  has, despite inquiries by interested family members, not been made available to surviving family members either through Wintertons or Master of the High Court.
 
“With this puzzle in my brother’s estate and this secrecy shrouding the estate proceedings, in case this file gets closed without proper accounting, the welfare of the kids will be my responsibility. To date we don’t know what’s going on in this estate. As of last week some assets had not been added to the file. I suspect these white law firms are using black folks as their front to milk deceased estates. That’s why Pichanick is referring everyone to Machirori who boasts of having worked in the Master’s office in the High Court at Harare for years. When I spoke to her over the phone she claimed that she knows the Master, some judges and people in high places and we were wasting our time as this matter would be heading nowhere. Is this the way the legal system in Zimbabwe now works? I would be surprised if this is the first or last estate with such controversy. I would appeal to all parties prejudiced by Wintertons on related matters to step forward for possible class action” Said Victoria Katsiga, the deceased’s sister.
In terms of the Administration of Estates Act, the original copy of the will should be in the hands of the Master of High Court and the Executor of the estate. To date, only photocopies have been furnished without any leads to the whereabouts of the original copy of the will. This has raised many questions in the estate.
Despite efforts by Gutu and Chikowero law firm who are representing Sasha Katsiga and surviving siblings demanding transparency to establish the true book value of estate assets, or at the least to secure meaningful interim relief and transport for Sasha, Wintertons have flatly refused to cooperate or share any information with anyone. Per information supplied to ZimEye, even the UK account details have remained undisclosed.
This case  is reportedly suspicious in that a certain Mrs. Nwadu, who signed the will as a witness, occupies one of the deceased estate properties and also works for Wintertons which is unethical according to standards. The only clue remains the deathbed wish by the late Innocent Katsiga to surviving siblings to have all assets handled on open table together with values through Wintertons. Today, estate values and all transactions have remained a secret. Almost two years later, the assets administration remain a puzzle and the case is about to be closed and the estate finalised.
This story is the 2nd in a series of articles on Wintertons law firm Money, and Estate Scandal.