On Day Four of a controversial case of an elderly couple going on at the Gaborone High, one of the children took a witness box and shared her knowledge about her family matters.
The 50-year-old Wangu Thipe told the court that sometime in February 2013, her father approached her informing her that he was not working and that Botswana Housing Corporation was threatening to repossess the family house in Block Nine.
She said that her father proposed that she settle all outstanding monthly installments and arrears and he would effect a Transfer of Rights and Responsibilities to her name for the benefit of the whole family.
Maano Thite (76) and Margaret Thipe (71) divorced in 2013 but are embroiled in a bitter legal battle over division of their estate since they cannot agree on who should take what.
Wangu who is independent of her parents said she agreed and that they both went to BHC where they were given a form to complete, and were advised to bring it back with a letter of consent from her siblings.
“I paid P21 000.00 which was a backlog for monthly installments and arrears. I received a call from BHC that I should pay an additional P6,000.00 which I did. A few weeks later I received a call from a man who claimed that he had paid P15,000.00 deposit to purchase the house I was paying for. He said he wanted his money back so I referred him back to whoever he was buying the house from,” she said noting that she also made an additional P4000.00 payment.
She added that she was hospitalized at some point and learned from her siblings that the house was being sold.
She said when she went back to BHC she found that the form had not been submitted and there was no arrangement whatsoever to transfer the house into her names.
She said her father was supposed to submit the form with the letter of consent but he never did, and never gave reasons for not doing that.
She then stopped paying monthly installments around August 2013.
“To me, I felt I was being used to pay monthly installments and arrears. I was willing to help but that’s not how you do business,” she said adding that the transaction “was not dealt with in an honest manner”.
However, Maano denies ever filling any BHC forms with his daughter, or seeing any document bearing signatures of her siblings.
When asked why she did not confront her father about the matter, Wangu said she is not a confrontational person.
She said that she had hoped to secure the house for her parents, siblings, and nephews.
Margaret and other family members have since left the house and she stays in her parents’ yard in Serowe.
When asked about a SHHA plot in Gaborone West, she said all she knows is that it was allocated to her mother who then got a loan.
She said that since she was young at the time, in her teen years, her mother used to send her uncle to pay loan monthly installments.
She confirmed that the SHHA house was sold by her father.
Wangu said she knows that her parents have a commercial and residential plot in Sebina, and a property in Francistown, and a ploughing field which her father shares with his siblings.
What a dubious elderly father to his children when we see ourselves aging fast and walking towards our graves does not mean we sease to be a parents to our children no matter how old we become. Depriving your own blood of things we can not take with us to our graves💔what a heck is happening here, is it Greed, Selfishness or just being devilish, we came it to this world with nothing and we shall surely leave this earth without.
Does this really mean as humans we forget that the unthinkable may happen after selling all our properties, all what we have on this earth because we do not want anybody to enherit, the worse part of it is to dupe your own children for their hard earned money while they trusted and believed you’re genuily going to do the change of ownership after paying a certain amount of money and they end up with nothing at all.
Remember that God can give you an extended amount of years to live like 120 years of life, where would that money be and would you be expecting them children to foot the cost of your funeral when that blind day comes? Honestly people of God whatever it is that’s here, isin’t right at all please let us not fall into this man’s shoes and then do the same to our children tomorrow I am really shocked and never heard of something like it before.