HARARE – Dynamos’ volatile ownership wrangle has reignited after a group which is trying to oust the current board of directors led by Bernard Marriot has emerged.
The group calling itself Surviving Founder Members, Former Players and Supporters (SFMFPS) has begun its campaign of wrestling the club’s control by trying to win over fans.
Fliers were distributed to DeMbare supporters during last Sunday’s match against Chapungu at Rufaro Stadium which the Glamour Boys won
1-0 to resurrect their faint title challenge.
As the country’s most successful and widely-supported football club with 21 Zimbabwean titles and millions of fans, Dynamos’ ownership and control has always been a contentious issue.
According to SFMFPS they are the legitimate owners of the club and have been shut out by Marriot’s board.
“…as a Dynamos family, we have a company which was regis-tered in 2009 as Dynamos Pvt LTD, and was denied to pursue its noble objectives for the past eight years by the late (Richard) Chimhinya re-gime and the current illegal regime led by . . . Marriot,” reads the flier.
“…the company is duly constituted in accordance with the 1963 constitution and was further confirmed by the Supreme Court judgment passed Justice (Luke) Malaba in 2006.
“…the objective of the com-pany among others was to unlock the full potential of Dynamos by creating business opportuni-ties such as: manufacture of club regalia, mining and farming, retail trade, insurance, automobile trade and housing development”.
Dynamos’ leadership structure has two layers. The board led by chairperson Marriot is the supreme decision-making entity at the club. Shacky Chitimbe, Owen Chan-damale, Charles Gwatidzo, Norman Maziti, Lazarus Mangwenzi, Noel Musariyarwa, Freddy Muzuva and Robson Rundaba are the other members of the board.
According to the club’s articles, for anyone to be part of the board, they should have been part of the founding members or played for the club between 1963 and 1968.
The board appoints an execu-tive committee which assumes the day-to-day running of the club. The current executive committee is led by president Kenni Mubaiwa.
SFMFPS alleges that there is a lot of political interference in the running of the club and this has stifled their progress.
“That regrettably, the company’s objectives highlighted above have not been achieved because of political interference aided by mysterious and powerful outside forces,” reads the flier.
“That former players and surviv-ing founder members, including resourceful supporters, have all been shut out for the past 10 years from participating in the running of the company and the club by self-imposed regime led by . . . Marriot with the support of strong outside strong.”
The group claims if they regain control of the club, they will put in place a place a board of directors comprising business leaders and an executive that will work to build the Dynamos brand.
Some of the business executives mentioned on the flier include Shingi Munyeza, Kumbi Kat-sande, Herbert Nkala, Willard Zireva and Hope Sadza. Webster Chikengezha, who recently stepped down from the club’s executive committee, has also been added on the list.
“…with such professional leader-ship in place, the company’s noble objectives would be achievable through proper planning and budgeting,” the group says.
“Indeed, the provision of facilities such as a stadium, com-pany offices, club house etc . . . would have been long achieved.”
The group says they will soon call for an all-stakeholders meeting where the club’s future will be discussed together with options to see how they can purge the “il-legal” Marriot board out of the club.
Efforts to get comment from the DeMbare board or Marriot proved fruitless by the time of going to press last night.
