A Bulawayo family member has accused the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) of inaction and alleged corruption in a bitter estate dispute that has dragged on for 47 years.
Mackenzie Taya Mlotshwa of Woodville suburb filed a complaint with the JSC two months ago over the administration of his late relative Daya Mlotshwa’s estate registered in October 2020, more than four decades after Daya’s death in April 1979.
While the JSC acknowledged receipt of his complaint on March 11, 2026, Mlotshwa says no action has been taken since.
“Meanwhile the other party continues to wind the estate as if nothing untoward is happening,” he submitted.
“By the time the JSC finalises the matter, irreversible damage may have been caused, just like the deliberate delay in releasing the judgment in my favour so that the master approves the account before the order is released.”
Campion Mlotshwa was reportedly appointed executor dative under estate DRB 987/20, but the distribution process has remained stagnant despite repeated calls for progress from the master of the High Court.
At the centre of his complaint is a case management meeting on November 28, 2025 before High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi.
Mlotshwa alleges the judge ruled several matters “fatally defective”, but failed to upload the written order to the court’s electronic system for months.
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“On a daily basis in December 2025… I requested the uploading of the order to no avail until I engaged the registrar himself,” he wrote.
“After conferring with Justice Mutevedzi, the registrar advised that the directions he received were to the effect that the matters would be rescinded at the properly constituted court when it resumed business after the vacation.”
He claimed the registrar later advised that matters would be rescinded only after the court vacation.
The dispute escalated on March 6, 2026, when Justice Moyo struck Mlotshwa’s re-filed application off the roll after allowing oral submissions from a respondent who had not formally opposed the case. Mlotshwa calls this “procedurally irregular.”
Meanwhile, the master of the High Court confirmed a distribution account for the estate on December 15, 2025, despite Mlotshwa’s pending appeal.
The Master’s Office responded that it acted lawfully, noting no active court matter suspended the process.
Mlotshwa has gone further, alleging to the JSC that a senior judge colluded with lawyers and may have been “promised a share of the disputed farm” a 106-hectare property at the heart of the feud.
“This is undoubtedly a typical case of the law of the jungle, whereby cases are no longer adjudicated objectively and won on merit in his letter to the JSC,” he argued.
The JSC has advised him to pursue appeals instead.
Judges have defended their rulings, with Justice Mutevedzi stating one application was “essentially unopposed.”
Campion Mlotshwa, the appointed executor, has dismissed the accusations, accusing Mackenzie of abusing court processes.
Mlotshwa has offered to administer the estate for free and proposes placing the farm into a family trust.
