DYNAMOS Football Club chairperson Bernard Marriot Lusengo has launched a new freedom bid to have a fraud charge of allegedly allocating himself 51 percent shares of the club fraudulently, quashed.
Yesterday, Lusengo, who is being represented by Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara , applied for an exception to the charges saying the allegations were vague and calculated to prejudice or embarrass him in his defence.
The State will respond to the application on March 16 and the court will rule on March 23.
“In the present matter the charge against the accused fails to meet the aforementioned legal standard and is therefore defective and must be quashed,” Zhuwarara said.
It is his argument that the charges as framed are not clear as it is not mentioned to whom the misrepresentation was made to.
“The charge is concluded in a manner that compounds its defect and confirms its invalidity. The charge states that the alleged misrepresentation caused a potential loss of 51 percent shares to Dynamos Football Club Pvt Ltd.
“This allegation is vague and embarrassing because at law, a company does not and cannot own its own shares and the loss of shareholding can never prejudice a Private Limited Company,” he argued.
He argued that Dynamos was not a natural person to be misrepresented hence there should be individuals to whom the misrepresentation was supposed to have been made to.
“The charge is not even clear as to who at Dynamos Football Club it is alleged that the accused made the misrepresentation to. The Charge states that the misrepresentation was made to Dynamos Football Club Pvt Ltd which is not a natural person.
“The misrepresentation must have been made to an officer or functionary of Dynamos Football Club Pvt Ltd and such person is not revealed in the charge.
“The charge therefore does not reveal an essential element of the allegations which is to whom at Dynamos Football Club did the Accused make the misrepresentation to”.
It is the State’s case sometime in 2008 Dynamos (Pvt) (Ltd) subsisting articles of association were replaced by a special resolution.
The net effect of the articles of association was to allocate some shares to people who were active members of Dynamos Football Club during the period 1963 and 1968 in accordance with recommendations of the Sports and Recreation Commission.
When the articles of association were adopted through articles 6 to article 19, a three member committee was set up to look into the issue of allocation of shares, payment, distribution and issuing of share certificates.
The committee consisted of Robinson Rundaha, Lusengo and Casper Muzenda.
However, the committee allegedly never convened to deliberate on the task and no allocation of shares or issuance of share certificates was done.
The issue remained silent but the agreement stating that the beneficiaries should benefit allegedly still stood.
Reports are that in 2014 Rundaha as the director finance reported a fraud case against Webster Marechera who was then club treasurer but this did not please the board.
The board reportedly met in his absence and replaced him with Owen Chandamale and resolved to withdraw the fraud case.
It is further alleged that Owen was not happy with the decision and walked away but did not resign as one of directors at Dynamos.
It is also the State’s case that in 2019, Rundaba received a call from Sakunda Holdings advising him that Lusengo had approached them seeking sponsorship and claiming to be the sole owner of Dynamos with 100 percent shares.
A meeting was called and it is alleged Lusengo had changed his statement from owning 100 percent shares to 51 percent shares.
A report was made to the police and it was discovered that he allegedly manipulated the share allocation process and awarded himself 51 percent without the knowledge of Dynamos.