Fresh charges for Marriot

Zvikomborero Parafini

DYNAMOS Football Club board chairman, Bernard Marriot, yesterday appeared in court facing fresh fraud charges.

Marriot was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate, Evelyn Mashavirakure, who remanded him to July 26 for trial commencement.

He was remanded out of custody because issues of bail didn’t arise as he was not coming from police custody.

The complainant in the matter is David George, a former star of the Glamour Boys, who is a shareholder at Dynamos FC.

George and Marriot are former players at the club.

The court heard that in 1975, George joined Dynamos Football Club as a player.

The 1963 Constitution of the club stated that the founding members of the club, and all the players who joined during that time, must be awarded shares.

George and other players were given one percent ordinary shares of the club.

George played for the club until 1983. Around 2002, the club was then taken over by Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) and the Sports Commission.

The case was filed at the Supreme Court and, in March 2006, a judgment was given by

Justice Malaba which, among other issues, ordered ZIFA and Sports Commission to return the club to the founding members and the former players retain their one percent ordinary share, as per the Constitution.

Sometime in 2018, one of the former players Robson Rundaba, found out that Marriot had now become the major shareholder of the club with 51 percent.

And, he had removed other members, including George, from the shareholding which was against the constitution, and the Justice Malaba judgment.

After George heard about the issue, he then checked if he was still holding his share, and found out that Marriot had taken over his share, without his knowledge and consent.

Marriot is now claiming to have 51 percent ordinary shares.

When George and the other members tried to communicate with Marriot, to find out why he had taken over their shares, he was always not available.

As a result, George decided to report the issue to the police.

Investigations revealed that Marriot had manipulated the process of share distribution and awarded himself a 51 percent shareholding capacity, without the knowledge or approval, of the other shareholders.

Tapiwanashe Zvidzai appeared for the State.