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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter

DYNAMOS’ former players’ board of trustees and the current leadership of Bernard Lusengo-Marriot have begun the process of engaging an independent arbitrator to help resolve the Premier Soccer League club’s ownership wrangle.

This comes after the DeMbare Electoral College met over the weekend and gave a mandate to the 10-member committee fighting Marriot’s claim of 51 percent ownership to go ahead with the mediation process as proposed by the principal sponsor, Sakunda Holdings.

The ownership wrangle issues are currently being handled at the Harare Magistrates Court.

But Sakunda, who are serious about getting a good return on their investment, has proposed professional mediation to assist the warring factions at DeMbare so that solutions are found.

DeMbare board chairman, Marriot, has since said that he is ready for mediation.

The decision by the Electoral College also dealt with the cracks that were beginning to emerge within the board of trustees led by Ernest Kamba who appeared to be against engaging Marriot, insisting on the legal route.

Sources weeks ago claimed that there was a fallout between Kamba and some of his erstwhile comrades after he refused to take up the offer from the club’s principal sponsor, Sakunda Holdings, to engage in professional mediation in the protracted dispute for the control of the institution. The other former players, including the legendary Moses “Bambo’’ Chunga, were in agreement with the offer for mediation instead of pursuing the legal channel while Kamba and others were adamant that the constitution is clear on shareholding.

However, after the weekend’s deliberations, Kamba and his committee that has Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa, Chunga, Clayton Munemo and Eric Aisam were given the task to engage in talks with Marriot and come up with a position.

Aisam, who is secretary of the board, told The Herald that they are happy that positive steps towards the club’s legacy have begun.

“The Electoral College resolved to have the board that is in the office carry out the work and reports back.

“The process to engage with Marriot has started. It’s a process that is positive for Dynamos. It is unfortunate that there is a lot of speculation and rumours contrary to what we are doing on the ground.

“I am not at liberty to divulge the name of the arbitrators and we don’t want people to speculate but I can safely say that the arbitration process has already started and the talks are ongoing,” said Aisam.

The former players reckon that order should return to the club by reverting to the Justice Malaba Supreme Court judgment of 2006, which ruled that the club should be run in accordance with the founding constitution of 1963. However, Marriot has long held that Dynamos ceased to be a community club via a resolution passed during the 1998 AGM.

Sakunda Holdings has warned that the continued bickering could affect future sponsorship deals and urged the warring parties to find common ground.

The principal sponsor has assured that the mediation process would be conducted without prejudice to any rights that each of the parties have and will have no effect on any past or present legal proceedings involving the warring parties.

The parties can consult their professional advisors for guidance and representation in the whole process.