DEMBARE’S GODFATHER WHO IS NOW AN EMPEROR

Robson Sharuko-H-Metro Editor

BERNARD Marriot recently dubbed himself the Dynamos godfather and now, after his boardroom triumph in court, he can even afford to call himself the club’s Emperor.

Magistrate Yeukai Dzuda’s dismissal of a fraud case, in which Marriot was facing allegations that he fraudulently allocated himself 51 percent of the shareholding in Dynamos (Pvt) Ltd, has consolidated his grip at the club.

It marks the end of a tough three-year battle for Marriot, which started just as the world was emerging out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and ended in the year he is now turning 77.

It was during the fraud trial that Marriot described himself, and his fellow founding fathers of the club, as the Dynamos godfathers.

And, since all of the other founding members are late, Marriot is the only remaining godfather at DeMbare.

His authority at the club, which in a way represents sole ownership of the Glamour Boys, has been consolidated by the recent ruling by the magistrate.

While he has been in charge since April 16, 2014, when he was appointed chairman of the club’s board of directors, the reality is that he has been fending off various challengers to his throne.

It has also cost Dynamos a lot of money, in the legal fees the club paid, to help Marriot remain in power.

Now, armed with the court judgment that his ownership (given that the other so-called seven directors exist in name only) of Dynamos was not a fraudulent act, Marriot is now more powerful than at any period since he took over power.

When the hawks were challenging his authority last year, we revealed that Marriot was being paid US$1,090 a month, which included a US$90,000 monthly payment for his DStv subscription.

Now, with his ownership of the club having been reinforced, something which he will hold on to until his death, Marriot can now do as he pleases and can even get his monthly salary increased ten-fold, if he wants.

He has been given the freedom to even argue that the Glamour Boys failed to win the championship in the past three years because he was distracted by this court battle in which his ownership of the club was at stake.

Marriot has been quite a dominant figure at Dynamos in the past decade but he has never been as powerful as he has been in the past three days since magistrate Dzuda acquitted him of fraud in his takeover of the Glamour Boys.

Until now, no one has owned Dynamos.

Marriot has just become the first man to do so and his ownership is now legal.