Grey Freight Continental
Freight and custom clearance services locally, regionally and internationally. We offer freight services at strategic Southern African ports and borders.
OpenCourt To Decide Fate Of Marriot’s 51% Stake In Dynamos
The Harare Magistrates Court is on Friday, January 31, set to deliver a verdict on the ongoing ownership dispute at Dynamos Football Club regarding Bernard Marriot-Lusengo’s 51 per cent shareholding claim, reported The Herald.
Marriot, the club’s board chairman and the last surviving founding member, has been engaged in a long-running battle with factions challenging his control of Dynamos Private Limited, the company that owns the Premiership team.
Former players Garikai Zuze, the late Ernest Kamba and David George, along with supporter Eric Mvududu, accuse Marriot of manipulating the club’s shareholding structure and unlawfully repealing Dynamos’ 1963 founding constitution.
The complainants allege Marriot manipulated the share register to secure a 51 per cent stake in Dynamos Private Limited, allocating shares to people not originally involved with the club.
They also claim Marriot is defying a 2005 Supreme Court order by Justice Luke Malaba, which instructed Dynamos to revert to the 1963 constitution, entitling founding members and players from the club’s early years to shares.
In his defence, Marriot testified that he is the last surviving member of the 20 people who founded Dynamos in 1963 and argued that the 1963 constitution included a provision for creating a company to own the club in the future.
He stated that the shares were meant for the founding players and those who played for the club in its early years.
Marriot’s lawyer, Herbert Mutasa, argued that in 1999, Dynamos Football Club Private Limited was formed, with Marriot and three other founding players subscribing to one share each.
Marriot also claimed the share distribution in 2017 was decided in a board meeting, not through his unilateral actions.
Two of the complainants, Kamba and George, passed away before the case was concluded. Marriot further argued that the remaining complainants, including Mvududu and Zuze, do not qualify as founding members or former players.
Earlier this week, Magistrate Yeukai Dzuda heard the state’s case against Marriot and deferred the ruling to today.
During cross-examination, the State, led by Dzidzai Josiah, presented a Supreme Court judgment confirming the club should operate according to the 1963 constitution, which entitles former players to one per cent of the shares.
The state also claimed Marriot held an extraordinary meeting without the complainants’ involvement and repealed the 1963 constitution.
Tags
