Lwazi Dekeda Inc.

02/06/2026

Married ≠ automatically provided for. ⚖️

A recent Pension Funds Adjudicator determination — MH Chawana v Eskom Pension and Provident Fund — confirms a truth many families learn the hard way: a marriage certificate alone does not guarantee you a share of your spouse's lump-sum death benefit.

When a fund member dies, the lump-sum death benefit isn't governed by the will or by marital status. Under Section 37C of the Pension Funds Act, the fund's board must weigh who actually depended on the deceased — and divide the benefit equitably on that basis.

In this matter the surviving spouse had separated from the deceased, was not living with or maintained by him, and only registered the customary marriage after his death. That secured her a monthly spouse's pension — but not a slice of the R882,984 lump sum. The complaint was dismissed.

Two lessons for every family:
🔹 Keep your beneficiary nominations current.
🔹 Understand that a spouse's pension and a Section 37C death benefit are two different things, governed by two different tests.

Estates and death-benefit disputes are where good planning either holds — or falls apart. We're here for the families navigating both.

28/05/2026

- LDI Year End Lunch 2025 Reflections

27/05/2026

20/05/2026

Losing someone is hard. Administering their estate shouldn't make it harder.

We've put together a step-by-step guide to how a deceased estate is wound up in South Africa — from reporting to the Master of the High Court, through to the final distribution of assets to heirs.

Eleven steps. Each with realistic timelines. No jargon.

Swipe through to see what the road looks like.

Whether you’re currently administering a loved one’s estate or thinking ahead about your own, our estate team is here to guide you through it.

Reach us at [email protected] or visit www.ldekedainc.co.za to start the conversation.

15/05/2026

Five years ago today, in the quiet uncertainty of a world locked down by a pandemic, LDI (Lwazi Dekeda Inc — Lord Do It) took its first breath.

I still remember Soso, ever the steady hand keeping my feet firmly on the ground, gently asking whether it was really necessary to name the baby after me. Looking back now, I smile at that moment — and at the gift of a partner who has walked every step of this journey with grace, wisdom, and unwavering love.

There was no capital. No business plan. No client base. Just a quiet, persistent whisper from God: Go. And so we went — with empty hands but full hearts, stepping into a journey shaped entirely by faith and grace.

Today, as I look back, I can finally see the picture beginning to take form. Every leap of faith, every passing year, every matter concluded — each one a brushstroke on a canvas only Heaven could have imagined.

I would be remiss not to honour the hands that helped carry us here. To our staff, past and present — yes, some of you gave us a grey hair or two 😅 — but most of you have been pillars of strength, partners in faith, and co-labourers in the work. We are who we are because you chose to walk with us.❤️

And to our clients: thank you for trusting us with what matters most to you. Every brief, every case, every quiet moment of confidence you placed in our care — we hold them as sacred, and we will keep working to be worthy of them. To our suppliers: your steady support behind the scenes has made everything in front of the scenes possible. We see you, and we are grateful.🙏🏾

Five years down.

Here's to the next chapter — and to a hundred more years of . :24

The best, I believe, is still ahead.🥂🥳🙇🏽‍♂️

- LD

14/05/2026

Sonwabo Mazinyo writes: "Their response time is immaculate. Their communication is clear and with legal transparency."

But behind those words is something deeper than process. People do not come to a conveyancer for paperwork. They come at the threshold of something.

A young couple purchasing their first home. A spouse receiving what the court has ordered after a divorce. An adult child taking transfer of the house they grew up in — now from a deceased parent's estate. A donor placing a property in the hands of a child they want to bless while they still can. A family moving an asset into the protection of a trust.

Each transfer is a chapter of a life.

At LDI, our Conveyancing Secretary Bongi Ndubela works alongside our admitted conveyancer to attend to:

— Property sales and sectional title transfers
— Transfers pursuant to divorce orders
— Deceased estate transfers (transmission to heirs)
— Donations and inter-spousal transfers
— Transfers to and from family trusts
— Subdivisions, consolidations, and subdivisional title transfers
— Bond registrations and cancellations

We hold them all with the care the moment demands.

11/05/2026

A client wrote to us recently, and a single line has stayed with me.

"Sometimes you don't get the best treatment in court."

Sometimes. Not always. Often enough to be a sentence she felt compelled to write down.

That she walked into LDI. expecting otherwise — and left grateful that we exceeded what she had quietly resigned herself to — is not a compliment to be celebrated. It is a quiet indictment of what too often passes for normal in our profession.

At LDI, this is the standard we endeavor to hold ourselves to. Not the praise. The daily discipline that earns it. Accuracy. Etiquette. The well-ordered file. The courtesy at reception. These are not soft skills. They are how dignity arrives in a courtroom, in a consultation, in a file.

To everyone starting their week today: the standard is not whether you got it done. The standard is whether the person you served walked away feeling like the law saw them.

Let justice roll down like waters.

— Lwazi Dekeda

01/05/2026

WORKERS’ DAY, CLAY, AI AND THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORK

Today is Workers’ Day in South Africa.

For some of us born in the 70s, we sit in an interesting place. We are old enough to remember a world before the internet lived in our pockets, before “working remotely” became normal, before AI could draft, design, summarise and analyse in seconds.

But we are also young enough to still be very much inside the change.

We grew up watching adults go to work with a certain rhythm: wake up early, dress properly, go to the office, respect the boss, keep your job, provide for your family, and hopefully retire with dignity.

In many African homes, work was never only about personal success. Work meant groceries at home, school fees for children, help for siblings, support for parents, contributions at church, funerals, weddings and family responsibilities.

One salary often carried many people.

But the world of work has changed.

In an interview with Dr Eliza Filby, she makes an important point: younger workers are not simply lazy or lacking “hunger”. Many are responding to a world where the old promise of work has weakened. The promise used to be simple: work hard, stay loyal, build a stable life. Today, that script is no longer guaranteed. Leaders must now ask: “What am I offering in the age of uncertainty?”

That question matters even more in the age of AI.

AI is no longer a future conversation. It is already here. It is drafting, calculating, researching, summarising, analysing and changing how work is done.

So perhaps the real question is not whether AI will change work.

It already has.

The real question is: how do we remain human while work is changing?

Last week, as part of our quarterly, we went to a place where we learned to create with clay.

At first, it was just clay.

No shape.
No form.
No certainty.
Just possibility.

And perhaps that is a good picture of where many workplaces find themselves today.

The future is not fully formed. The tools are changing. The economy is uncertain. The expectations of employees are changing. The old moulds are no longer enough.

But together, something can still be shaped.

That clay exercise reminded us that building a workplace is not only about policies, files, deadlines and performance. It is also about patience, creativity, teamwork, trust and the willingness to get our hands a little dirty.

There was humour too — because some of us discovered that what we imagined in our heads and what appeared in our hands were not always relatives. 😅

But that is also leadership.

You start with what is in front of you.
You work with the people around you.
You shape what you can.
You keep learning.
You laugh where you must.
You begin again where necessary.

On this Workers’ Day, we honour the dignity of work.

We honour the people who carry families, businesses, communities and the country through their labour.

And we are reminded that in uncertain times, employers must not merely ask people to be loyal. We must create workplaces where people can learn, belong, grow and help shape what comes next.

AI may change the tools.

But people still shape the culture.

Happy Workers’ Day, South Africa.

May we keep building workplaces where technology advances, but humanity is not retrenched.

- Lwazi Dekeda

29/04/2026

We're hiring an Attorney for our Litigation & General Department.

Admitted, 3+ years' post-admission experience, comfortable in both Magistrates' and High Courts, able to run your own files.
Apply via the CVQuest portal — scan the QR code on the last slide or visit www.cvquest.com.

Please complete the screening questionnaire in full; incomplete applications won't be considered.

Closing date: 14 days from today.

27/04/2026