The late socialite and fitness trainer Michelle “Moana” Amuli’s mother, Yolander Kuvaoga, represented by her lawyer Jerome Madondo, made an urgent chamber application at the High Court to nullify the burial order issued on November 18.
Kuvaoga wants her estranged husband Ishmael Amuli to be prevented from renouncing their prior agreement that Moana be buried at Zororo Cemetery.
She also wants the court to grant an interim interdict to stop the burial until the finalisation of the matter.
High Court Judge Justice Pisirai Kwenda on Friday postponed the matter to Monday by consent of both parties’ lawyers as he wants to hear the two parties’ oral evidence before making an informed decision on the dispute.
In her founding affidavit, Moana’s mother claimed to have made an agreement with Amuli that their daughter is buried at Zororo Cemetery in the presence of the deceased’s relatives and friends.
She said Amuli later reneged on what they had agreed to and said Moana would be buried according to the rights of Islam in her absence. Said Kuvaoga:
I have a reasonable apprehension that I, together with other female sisters, colleagues and relations would be excluded from the funeral rites which would be unconscionable.
… I do not wish or desire that anyone be excluded from the occasion on the basis of gender or creed as this goes against not only my sense of community according to custom but of the general persona of my deceased daughter who embraced everyone.
The deceased was a popular personality with a huge following. Apparently, it would be unfair not only to me but to other people and relations who knew her personality.