Sports / Soccer
Dembare ownership wrangle resurfaces
28 May 2017 at 09:36hrs | Views
ALMOST seven years after filing an urgent chamber application seeking to interdict some of the Dynamos Football Club's founding fathers from interfering with the club's operations, the matter still remains pending at the High Court, Standardsport reported.
This has since forced the Dynamos Trust to approach the court seeking to be joined as a party with a view to bring finality to the on-going squabbles. Dynamos has a volatile history of boardroom squabbles.
Dynamos Trust's chairperson, former player Isaac Nhema, last week filed a court application at the High Court saying the sluggard pace at which the court matters have so far been handled has left ravages of the vested rights of not only the country's biggest football club but also painted a slurred image of the football fraternity.
Sometime in 2010, Dynamos Football Club approached the court twice seeking to bar the late Dynamos board of directors chairman Richard Chiminya and the club's current and former excecutive, arguing they were interfering with the club's operations.
Some of the members mentioned include Farai Munetsi, the late Freddy Mkwesha, Bernard Mariot Lusengo, Sunday Chidzambwa, Charles Gwatidzo, Robson Rundaba, Brian Kashangura, Kenny Mubaiwa, Harrison Mbewe, Mike George, David Mandigora, Owen Chandamale and Casper Muzenda.
However, seven years later, the matters have not been completed, with current board chairperson Bernard Marriot-Lusengo having since taken over from Chiminya, prompting Nhema to approach the court through the trust with a view to revive and bring the issues to finality.
"The applicant [Dynamos Football Club] filed the urgent chamber application HC1820/10 followed by yet another court application in HC2623/10 in a bid to interdict and restrain the malfeasance and offensive activities of the respondents [Chiminya and others]," Nhema said.
"With time taking its toll, some of the respondents have since been deceased and necessitating substitution by others in amendments of the pleadings, further fuelling the chaos and anarchy.
"What prompted the filing of the applications was in order to curb, if not eliminate altogether, the respondent's conducts' which was inimical to and subversive of the running of the affairs of the applicant and Dynamos Football Club."
Nhema said the reality was that what was initially sought to be addressed by the matters that were taken to court, had not been addressed and continued to haunt the club.
"The stark reality is that the licentiousness and harm that was sought to be stamped out by the court actions, namely the malpractices over the safe custody, maintenance and control of the assets in the applicant overburdened by liabilities and unconscionable practices by the respondents rein unbridled," Nhema said.
"Within this context it is in the best interest of the administration of justice that the board of trustees actively participates in the applications filed by the applicant. This will no doubt enhance the effective combat of the vice bedevilling the applicant and the football club. This will be done by collaboration in and close monitoring of, coupled with devising and spearheading the measures to overcome the prejudicial conduct of the respondents."
The chairperson also said sight should not be lost of the management and control of the financial affairs of the football club, which he claimed continued to be handled with reckless abandon.
"The majority of the shareholders and beneficiaries in the trust are well past retirement age and realistically, if the matters are allowed to drag on at the pace they are, they in all probability might not live to see the benefits come to fruition," he said.
"Having secured the relief sought in the present application, it is desirable for the board of trustees to probe the possibility of invoking the participation in the court matters of other stake holders such as Zimbabwe Football Association Premier Soccer League who are directly involved in the key aspects of the affairs of the applicant and the football club."
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.
This has since forced the Dynamos Trust to approach the court seeking to be joined as a party with a view to bring finality to the on-going squabbles. Dynamos has a volatile history of boardroom squabbles.
Dynamos Trust's chairperson, former player Isaac Nhema, last week filed a court application at the High Court saying the sluggard pace at which the court matters have so far been handled has left ravages of the vested rights of not only the country's biggest football club but also painted a slurred image of the football fraternity.
Sometime in 2010, Dynamos Football Club approached the court twice seeking to bar the late Dynamos board of directors chairman Richard Chiminya and the club's current and former excecutive, arguing they were interfering with the club's operations.
Some of the members mentioned include Farai Munetsi, the late Freddy Mkwesha, Bernard Mariot Lusengo, Sunday Chidzambwa, Charles Gwatidzo, Robson Rundaba, Brian Kashangura, Kenny Mubaiwa, Harrison Mbewe, Mike George, David Mandigora, Owen Chandamale and Casper Muzenda.
However, seven years later, the matters have not been completed, with current board chairperson Bernard Marriot-Lusengo having since taken over from Chiminya, prompting Nhema to approach the court through the trust with a view to revive and bring the issues to finality.
"The applicant [Dynamos Football Club] filed the urgent chamber application HC1820/10 followed by yet another court application in HC2623/10 in a bid to interdict and restrain the malfeasance and offensive activities of the respondents [Chiminya and others]," Nhema said.
"With time taking its toll, some of the respondents have since been deceased and necessitating substitution by others in amendments of the pleadings, further fuelling the chaos and anarchy.
Nhema said the reality was that what was initially sought to be addressed by the matters that were taken to court, had not been addressed and continued to haunt the club.
"The stark reality is that the licentiousness and harm that was sought to be stamped out by the court actions, namely the malpractices over the safe custody, maintenance and control of the assets in the applicant overburdened by liabilities and unconscionable practices by the respondents rein unbridled," Nhema said.
"Within this context it is in the best interest of the administration of justice that the board of trustees actively participates in the applications filed by the applicant. This will no doubt enhance the effective combat of the vice bedevilling the applicant and the football club. This will be done by collaboration in and close monitoring of, coupled with devising and spearheading the measures to overcome the prejudicial conduct of the respondents."
The chairperson also said sight should not be lost of the management and control of the financial affairs of the football club, which he claimed continued to be handled with reckless abandon.
"The majority of the shareholders and beneficiaries in the trust are well past retirement age and realistically, if the matters are allowed to drag on at the pace they are, they in all probability might not live to see the benefits come to fruition," he said.
"Having secured the relief sought in the present application, it is desirable for the board of trustees to probe the possibility of invoking the participation in the court matters of other stake holders such as Zimbabwe Football Association Premier Soccer League who are directly involved in the key aspects of the affairs of the applicant and the football club."
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.
Source - the standard
