A son’s cry and call on executors to respect late Sakaria Nghikefelwa’s will

A son’s cry and call on executors to respect late Sakaria Nghikefelwa’s will

By Kleopas Nghikefelwa|

My late father, Sakaria Nghikefelwa, was a well-known dedicated school teacher, who cared well for his children for long as a single father after he lost his beloved wife in an Okongo land mine in 1987.

As a well-educated person he knew that it was very important for him to have a will or testament that contained his wishes how his properties must be shared after death.

In 2020 he died after a short illness in Okongo state hospital at an old age, aged 78.

All his children were informed after the funeral that they should not worry that his property will get lost, because he left a testament and it will be submitted to the Master of the High Court, the protector of the rights of beneficiaries and creditors in deceased estates.

But my family has been experiencing some difficulties and challenges in an effort to have our father’s estate executed by following the administration process of a deceased estate.

Firstly, this process was sabotaged by close members of my family, who failed and delayed (for some years) to submit all relevant documents needed to register the estate; this forced the FNB to renounce their appointment as executors.

After another long struggle, we used a different strategy; we managed to obtain all confiscated relevant documents, which were needed to register my father’s estate with the Shikongo Law firm and on 8 July 2025, Mr Abed Nego (Natangwe) Nghikefelwa, as a first born son of our late father Sakaria Nghikefelwa, was appointed as an executor of our father’s estate.

We do understand very well that the Primary Burden on Executor: The legal duty to collect assets, settle liabilities, and distribute remaining property in a timely manner, rests heavily on the nominated executor or representative.

Now as beneficiaries for almost a year and three months now, we have been waiting for these appointed estate representatives, to ensure that our father’s estate is distributed in a timely and professional manner.

But up to this day, the final stage of the payments and transfers of inheritances to heirs, is not yet reached. I am now getting more worried because my father left some movable assets and immovable assets that are now neglected and somewhere left without security and protection; they are now likely to lose value or get stolen.

The two business plots allocated to him by Okongo Village Council, have been accumulating more debts and although we see people operating and installing their new businesses on the deceased’s assets, no income from the deceased’s assets is deposited into the opened estate bank account since our father died in 2020.

Since there is no proper communication with us the children of the late, we assume that proceeds from business activities taking place at our late father’s plots is being pocketed by individuals who are mismanaging the deceased assets.

And his vehicles are getting rotten in the sun and they are no longer road worthy and are deregistered by Natis.

This long delay in finalising the estate of our late father also caused so much psychological and emotional damage to some members of our family.

Some damage also caused by this situation is a lot of stress, anxiety and mental problems to the young inheritors, who lost their father, who truly cared much for them and left inheritance for them with a Will in place, but they are denied their rights to inherit their father, by the ineffective process of administrating a deceased estate in Namibia.

I believe what my family is going through is not an isolated case but there are more families in Namibia that are facing the same challenges to have their parents’ estates finalised in a professional and timely manner.

Therefore, I am appealing to the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations and the Office of the Master of the High Court in Namibia, to find time to investigate reported cases and ensure that the executor/estate representative distribute the deceased estate in a professional and timely manner.

I would like also to appeal to the Minister of Justice and Labour Relations and all law makers to ensure that all old laws of administering a deceased person’s estate in Namibia which need to be repealed or amended are looked at as a matter of urgency, especially the Administration of Estates Act 66 of 1965.

– Kleopas Nghikefelwa is the third born of the late Sakaria Nghikefelwa (in the photo). He lives in Oniipa.