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Tadious Manyepo

Sports Reporter

OWNERSHIP wrangles, which have characterised Premiership football giants Dynamos for decades, are set to become a thing of the past following a commitment from the Glamour Boys’ principal sponsors Sakunda Holdings to bankroll founding members’ trusteeship.

There have been perennial fights over the control of the country’s most successful club with Dynamos Private Limited currently the owners of this institution through shareholding.

But families of the 20 founding members, including the only surviving founder-member who is the current board chairman Bernard-Marriott Lusengo, have decided to form trustees which will own the club.

The families were gathered around by Marriott-Lusengo with the backing of Sakunda Holdings where it was resolved a way forward be mapped for the good of the team on Friday last week.

Speaking at the meeting, a Sakunda Holdings representative said his company was ready to bankroll the establishment of each member’s trust.

“I rose to speak on behalf of Sakunda Holdings, our chief executive Kuda Tagwirei has failed to make it to this event. But, he wants to move with you as founding members hence this support,” said the representative.

“He (Tagwirei) also feels what you are doing is good. Don’t let this journey stall now, Marriott-Lusengo is here and there are 20 families of the founding members of Dynamos, and those who will live long enough will testify to this gesture.

“Lawyers will assist you as families on how Trusts operate and as Sakunda Holdings, we will pay the fees for the lawyers to teach you on this. There are 20 families and there are widows, sisters, brothers and (Mr Tagwirei) will pay for the legal fees. When the lawyer and families agree on the setting up of a trust, as Sakunda Holdings, we are going to put into each of the 20 trusts, a basic whether US$3 000, US$3 500, US$4 000 depending on what our CEO would suggest. We will put the money into each trust. We think what we will see from the trusts will tell us about widows in those trusts, we want to see who are the surving spouses if there is none, we will go to children.”

Marriot-Lusengo said he is determined to see off the perennial ownership squabbles off.

“We invited you here to let you know what we have planned with lawyers. This is my idea to make sure that we end the ownership squabbles which we have witnessed before,” said Marriott-Lusengo.

“I am happy that you came, I have been longing for us to meet, there is noone who owns Dynamos except you. This is not the first and last time we have met.”

Dynamos legal representative, Herbert Mutasa, hailed the consultations.

“Fights for the control of Dynamos FC have not been ending, so the chairman (Marriott-Lusengo) approached me saying families of those who founded Dynamos are still alive so let me make sure I bring them together. What we are doing today is what is called hitting the final nail.

‘’We exchanged ideas, we are going to give you what will take place, and after that I will resign from Dynamos stories as nothing will happen again. As you know there is Dynamos Football Club which is the team and there is Dynamos Football Club Private Limited, the company which is owned by shareholders, so Dynamos is owned by founding members, so we thought that shares in Dynamos football club Pvt Ltd must be controlled by founding members despite their existence. After realising that some of the founding members are not here, we decided that trusts are set up for each of the founding members and that trusts will be owners of the team.”

The 20 founding members of this institution include Marriott-Lusengo, Josiah Akende, Danny Yaledi, Lameck Mlambo, Obediah Sarupinda, Sidney Karungaire, Alois Mesikano, Freddie Mkwesha, Allan ‘’Teacher’’ Hlatywayo, Nathan Maziti and Jairos Banda.

Patrick Dzvene, James Finch, Richard Chiminya, Simon Machaya, Morrison Sifelani and George Chatyoka were also part of the cast. The man credited with coining the name Dynamos, Narisicius Murambiwa, Fabiano Kanyemba and Ephraim Mupariwa complete the list.