Last month, Civil Aviation Authority continued with their compensation for Maun residents who were relocated to make way for the expansion of the tourist town’s airport.
While many smiled all the way to the bank, Moeti councillor, Botshelobokae Ramasu and her ex-husband’s widow, Christine Ramasu are yet to claim their share.
Instead, the duo have been embroiled in a bitter court battle to determine the rightful beneficiary.
Botshelobokae insists she should inherit the undisclosed sum as she was Phenyo Ramasu’s wife at the time of the 2007 relocation, adding she married him in community of property by customary law in 1973.
Christine, on the other hand, argued the money is lawfully hers as it was meant for her late husband and thus should pass on to her.
She revealed she married Phenyo in community of property under central government law in 2018, two years after his divorce from Botshelobokae.
“Christine has no claim to this money because I acquired the concerned property with the now late Phenyo Ramasu. When we divorced, the payout from CAA was still pending. We were relocated from Botshabelo and paid for it, but then there was re-assessment whose payment is now in question,” explained Botshelobokae in her appeal to Customary Court of Appeal this week.
A quick background to the case is that, in 1984, after 11 years of marriage, the couple moved out of Phenyo’s parents house where they had been staying, relocating to Botshabelo ward. The residential plot was in Phenyo’s names as the head of the house.
Botshelobokae maintains that Phenyo then left his job and they managed to use his package to build a hut and a two-roomed house.
In 1994, she ran for elections and won a council seat. At the end of the five-year term, she used her package to extend their house to a four-roomed dwelling.
However, in 2007 they were relocated to Moeti. Botshelobokae says they used most of the compensation money to buy 37 cattle, with the remaining change not enough to complete their desired house. Their daughter, Khumoyame Ramasu is said to have then obtained a loan from the bank to help them complete their dream family home.
In her appeal, Botsheloboake maintained that they failed to payback their daughter as promised but banked on the re-assessment payout to clear the debt.
Before the re-assessment was finalised, Botshelobokae and Pheyo divorced in 2016. When dividing their property, the wife remained with the house while Phenyo allegedly opted to take the re-assessment money so that he could build his new home.
Christine remains adamant that Phenyo never mentioned the daughter’s debt, adding even Khumoyame never spoke about it when her father was still alive.
She told court Phenyo inherited debts from his previous marriage, including a National Development Bank (NDB) loan and land lease from the landboard.
“He told me about these loans but never said a thing about the daughter’s debt which is being raised in court. What he said was that the compensation money was not to benefit his ex-wife. His plan was to settle his debts and build a house for himself with it,” she said.
In his ruling, Kgosi Masunga, who was part of a three-man panel, noted there was no such thing as ‘marriage in community of property’ in customary law.
Masunga went on to uphold a judgment initially made by Kgosi Setlhodi in May this year, which ruled the two be given an equal share of the re-assessment money.
“A copy of this judgment would be shared with CAA to inform the payout,” stated Masunga.
It was not revealed how much the payout is worth.