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AT the end of the long-dragging battle, it was Bernard Marriot Lusengo who had the last laugh.
The Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd board chairman, looking immaculate in a light grey suit, emerged from the Harare Magistrates Court all smiles after he was cleared of charges of fraudulently acquiring 51 percent of the ordinary shares.
It was a hugely anticipated ruling given that the matter has dragged on for more than three years at the court and along the way two of the complainants David George and Ernest Kamba passed away.
And all eyes from the divided DeMbare family were on Harare magistrate Yeukai Dzuda before she handed down her judgment late in the afternoon, ending a long dragging legal battle.
Marriot, with a spring in his step was in the end left a hugely relieved man.
He had already been cleared of three of the six initial charges he was facing but for the complainants and a faction of the Dynamos supporters that was backing them, the real deal was always on the issue of the 51 percent of the shares.
Much to his relief, the DeMbare strongman was acquitted on allegations of corruptly acquiring majority shareholding in the club and allocating other shares to undeserving people who are not the club’s original members.
In her ruling, magistrate Dzuda said the complainants in the matter do not fall in the category of former players as per the club’s 1963 constitution.
The complainants had also wanted the court to make a determination based on the Dynamos founding constitution of 1963.
And Dzuda went on to state that none of the complainants played for Dynamos during its formation in 1963.
The applicants also failed to convince the court of the illegality of the amendments made by Marriot to the constitution, which gave him the power to claim the share ownership.
“The State did not tender evidence to prove a charge of fraud against the accused person, therefore he is found not guilty and acquitted,” ruled the magistrate.
Those who have fought Marriot including former club secretary-general Leslie Gwindi and ex-treasurer Eric Mvududu for close to a decade accuse the Dynamos founder of grabbing the shares illegally in 2017 “and assuming unfettered control” of the Harare giants.
They roped in former players and had set a shadow board of Trustees led by ex-striker Esau Amisi, which also accused Marriot of running the club illegitimately after doing away with the 1963 constitution.
The complainants also wanted the magistrate to find Marriot guilty of allegedly defying a 2005 Supreme Court order by Justice Luke Malaba, directing that Dynamos should revert to the club’s founding constitution.
The 1963 Dynamos constitution stated that the founding members and those who played for the team during its pioneering era were entitled to at least one share.
After the demise of George and Kamba, the remaining complainants included Gwindi, Mvududu and Zuze.
However, Dzuda ruled that none of them fits into the category of the Dynamos founding fathers nor former players.
In his defence, Marriot had always argued that the complainants in the matter were not entitled to any shares in the company that now owns Dynamos adding that there was no longer any structure called Board of Trustees at the Harare Premiership giants.
He also told the court that he was the only surviving member of the club’s founders of 1963.
Marriot added that the 1963 constitution was repealed at a general assembly meeting and from that day the club was being run in terms of the company’s articles of association.
The veteran administrator who also helped in establishing the Premier Soccer League, argued that nobody, including the complainants, had challenged the registration of Dynamos Club Private Limited when the company was formed.
During cross examination last week, the State led by Dzidzai Josiah read a Supreme Court judgment, which states that the club should be run in terms of the 1963 constitution when it was formed.
Josiah went on to read a section in the club’s Constitution in which the former players, some of whom formed the complainants, are said to be entitled to one share.
Josiah put it to Marriot that he actually stole the shares from the former players and he had no right to do so.
The State also said Marriot held an extraordinary meeting in the absence of the complainants and repealed the 1963 Constitution.
It was the State’s case that Marriot declared himself the club’s board chairman and is said to have acted against a High Court order which awarded each founding member one share each.
Marriot was at one stage reported to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission on fraud allegations.
This meant that yesterday was a big day for the DeMbare supremo and his long serving lawyer Herbert Mutasa who was by his side in court as he was when they left the court building the company of some jubilant supporters and members of the Dynamos safety and security team.
It is also the second time in as many weeks that Marriot has won a key court battle against the Gwindi and Mvududu faction after they lost in their High Court bid last Friday to scuttle the ZIFA elections on the basis that the Marriot-appointed executive committee had no legitimacy to sign nomination forms for the association elections.
High Court judge Justice Esther Muremba struck off Gwindi’s application and ordered them to pay the costs for the Premier Soccer League and Marriot who were cited as second and third respondents.
ZIFA, the Sports and Recreation Commission and the Minister of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture (Kirsty Coventry) had been cited as the first, fourth and fifth respondents in the failed bid.
Online Reporter