Durban - The funeral of murdered metro police senior manager Innocent Chamane has been stopped by court interdict amid allegations by his ex-wife and children that his girlfriend and sisters want to “rush it through” to quickly take control of his financial affairs.
Durban High Court Judge Piet Koen granted the urgent interim order late on Friday, ordering that the “heirs” – his ex-wife Sandra, daughter, also Sandra, and three sons – be given control of his body and that his six sisters and girlfriend Thando Duma give to them his death certificate, the keys to his safe and any cash taken from it. They were also ordered to stop dealing with insurance companies. The respondents have until November 19 to file papers opposing the order being made final.
Chamane – the support services manager – was a controversial and largely unpopular figure in the metro police.
He was shot several times in the head and body when he returned home at KwaNgcolisi, near Hillcrest, last Tuesday evening.
In her affidavit on behalf of the “heirs”, his daughter Sandra Chamane said her siblings had “strong emotional ties with him”.
“Our relationships may not have been perfect and at times strained, but we loved him dearly,” she said.
She said after hearing of his murder, she had gone to his house to discover her mother in tears complaining that she was being treated in an undignified and disrespectful manner.
“She had been barred from entering the house. We were also then rudely dismissed.
“Only after my other brother arrived were we allowed in, but all our inquiries regarding burial plans and the completion of customary practices were met with disdain,” she said.
One of her brothers had then discovered further meetings – again with the exclusion of the heirs – and it appeared funeral arrangements for November 15 were well under way.
Chamane said there was no mention of the important cleansing ceremony which had to be done so that her father was “clean when reintroduced to his ancestors”.
Apart from “unlawfully taking control of his ID book, safe keys and bank cards”, accessing his bank accounts and engaging with his insurers, the respondents had also barred them from seeing his body at the mortuary by not putting their names on the “permitted visitors list”.
“They are acting with bad intentions. They are attempting to unlawfully administer the estate and that is why the funeral is being rushed, why they are contacting insurers and consolidating his financial affairs,” she said.
The Mercury
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