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Lloyd Mutasa

Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
THE High Court in Harare has reserved judgment in the matter in which a group trading as Dynamos Trust are seeking to be a party in the long standing application before the same court that is trying to interdict Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd from administering the Premiership giants. Judge president Justice George Chiweshe yesterday heard the arguments of the parties representing Dynamos Trust and Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd in an application which the former want to be joined to two previous cases that have been pending at the High Court since 2010.

Those cases are an attempt to bar Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd, led by board chairman Bernard Marriot Lusengo, from running the popular Harare giants. After hearing the submissions made by Harare lawyers Francis Katsande for the Trustees and Herbert Mutasa for Dynamos (Pvt) Ltd, Justice Chiweshe reserved his ruling.

That the High Court has reserved judgment could also help Marriot, his board and the executive committee to focus on helping the Glamour Boys focus on their bid to claim the 2017 Castle Lager Premiership championship whose title race is headed for the wire. It has also seemingly become the norm that whenever Dynamos have either won some major silverware or are on the threshold of achieving some success, different groups of former players launch some spirited campaigns to seize control of the club.

The same groups, however, either vanish or lie dormant at the start of the season when huge financial injections are needed to secure players’ signing-on fees and during the term when funds are needed to sustain the Premiership campaign. The Dynamos Trust is fronted by Isaac Nhema and the other trustees are listed as George Shaya, Ernest Kamba, Peter Huni, Willard Sarupinda, Isidore Sagwete and Cremio Mapfumo.

In their heads of argument, the Trustees are seeking that:

“The 2nd applicant’s relief is to be joined as a party in the application filed by the 1st applicant in HC263/10. Being the Trust envisaged in the 1963 constitution of Dynamos Football Club, the 2nd applicant genuinely believes it had direct and substantial interest in the matter raised by the 1st applicant in cases 1820/10 and HC2623/10 concerning the management and control of Dynamos Football Club.

“The quoted management and control of Dynamos Football Club formed the subject of SC93/2005 the terms of which the second applicant considers not to have been implemented in the terms of the said Supreme Court judgment. The second applicant is convinced that once joined as a party that would enable it to steer the course to fulfil the objectives as set out in the Supreme Court judgment.

“The 2nd Applicant contends that what ought to be elucidated in the HC1820/10 and 2623/10 which regrettably is somewhat obscured in those court cases is the implementation of the terms of the Supreme Court judgment,’’ said the Trustees.

Nhema and his crew further claim that the ownership and management of Dynamos should be done “in terms of the 1963 constitution until such time as it is lawfully repealed or amended.’’

Marriot ,in his arguments presented to the court by Mutasa, dismissed the claim that the Dynamos Trust exists within the structures of Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd nor any of the Premiership giants’ make-up. The Dynamos board chairman filed his heads of argument together with fellow board members Owen Chandamale and Charles Gwatidzo as well as club president Kenny Mubaiwa.

Marriot also argued that Nhema’s application was defective on the basis that it cited the late pair of former board chairman Richard Chiminya (first respondent) and Freddy Mkwesha (third respondent).

“The matter in which the applicant is seeking to be joined i.e. case number HC2623/10 is essentially an application for an interdict instituted in the name of Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd against some 14 respondents mentioned therein. At the centre of dispute in that matter is whether or not respondents quoted therein are legitimate office bearers of Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd. The applicant herein was not yet in existence (only being created by a Deed of Trust some three years after the institution of the aforesaid litigation) and none of the issues arising in that matter has any bearing on it,’’ Marriot said.

The High Court also heard that the Trust which was formed nearly 16 years after the inauguration of Dynamos (Pvt) Ltd Company, could not claim any legal basis of being part of the Premiership giants’ structures.

“I have no knowledge of the entity that is being referred to as the Board of Trustees. I mention, however, for completeness that the legitimate board of Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd of which I am the chairman has continued to be seized with all affairs relating to Dynamos Football Club in accordance with the Memorandum and Articles of Association of that company.

“The applicant being alien to the structure of both Dynamos Football Club and Dynamos Football Club (Pvt) Ltd has absolutely no interest in the affairs of those entities. There can be no legal basis for the joiner that it seeks. It is an outright stranger whose involvement in this litigation may only contribute to the mud waters,’’ said Marriot.

Ironically, all this drama at Dynamos, the country’s most successful club, comes in the week in which the Barcelona Legends are coming to Zimbabwe. Barcelona, just like Dynamos, are a community club but unlike those at DeMbare, their former players have moved on long after playing for the Catalan giants and have never tried to wrestle control of the Spanish club