The estate of murdered music icon Taliep Petersen has been wound up and all that remains is a modest R10 000.
Now city attorneys are turning their attention to Petersen's multi-million-rand insurance policy payout to secure his six children a bigger slice of the estate.
The sole beneficiary of the R5,3-million insurance policy is nine-year-old Zaynab Petersen, who was born from Petersen's marriage to Najwa Petersen - the woman who was sentenced to 28 years for orchestrating his December 2006 murder.
City attorney Igshaan Higgins confirmed the R10 000 balance on Tuesday and said all creditors who had lodged claims against the estate had been paid. The last settlement was a R175 000 claim from the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
Higgins said that since the Sars claim was so small, it showed that Petersen had been diligent about paying his taxes.
The estate was finalised during the past two weeks and a payout would be made soon, Higgins said.
He added that he was considering giving Petersen's "priceless" music equipment to Petersen's heirs in-stead of auctioning it.
Higgins said that even though there was only R10 000 left of the estate, it had been insolvent when he had become involved in the process two years ago.
His firm had managed to create a positive balance after persuading the Namibian tax authorities to reduce their claim against the estate from R3.8m to R800 000.
The Namibian tax authorities said the amount represented Najwa Petersen's unpaid taxes from a business she and her siblings operated there. Since she and Petersen were married in community of property, her debts could be claimed from the estate.
The attorneys also settled the mortgage bonds of three houses.
Higgins said other claims had been for small amounts.
Higgins, attorney Sharleen Mouton and the firm, De Klerk and Van Gend, will now turn their attention to the R5.3m insurance policy payout intended for Zaynab.
Higgins said the firm had delayed the investigation into the insurance policy until they had satisfied the creditors as they had feared that the creditors might have inflated their claims if they had been aware of the possibility of more money and additional creditors might also have come forward with bogus claims.
He added that they had already had several bogus claims from individuals who had alleged that Peter-sen owed them money.
"There are many people watching this estate," he said.
Since her mother's incarceration, Zaynab has been living with Suleiman Effendi, Najwa Petersen's son from a previous marriage.
Higgins wants the money to form part of the Petersen estate to ensure that it is divided equally among his six children.
He said last month that he would investigate whether Petersen had consented to making Zaynab the sole beneficiary of the insurance policy and whether he had agreed to exclude his other children from benefiting from the insurance policy.
Petersen had a daughter, Natasha Vorster, from a previous relationship, and three daughters and a son from his marriage to Madeegha Anders.
During Najwa Petersen's bail application in 2007 in the Wynberg Regional Court, it emerged that she had attempted to have the R5.3m paid into a Namibian bank account in her name soon after Petersen's murder in December 2006.
She told the court she had done this because she did not use that account and had wanted to keep the money separate from her own. Her intention had been to set up a trust fund for Zaynab.
Higgins will now probe the circumstances surrounding the decision to make Zaynab the sole beneficiary.
He said he wanted to ensure that Petersen's other children were not left destitute.
In February, Najwa Petersen was sentenced to 28 years in jail for Taliep Petersen's murder, while Waheed Hassen and Abdoer Raasiet Emjedi were each sentenced to 24 years for their role in his death.
Najwa Petersen and Emjedi were unsuccessful in their attempts to appeal against their convictions.
Hassen received an additional one-year sentence for the unlawful possession of a firearm.
Jefferson Snyders was sentenced to seven years in jail for robbery.