Dynamos Football Club chairperson Bernard Marriot Lusengo has been acquitted of fraud charges after a Harare court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Magistrate Yeukai Dzuda dismissed the case at the close of the State’s argument, stating that the evidence presented was too weak to support a conviction.
“In casu, it is the court’s humble view that former players are those who played in 1963, and none of these complainants joined or played for the club in 1963; they actually joined after 1963,” Dzuda ruled.
“The State failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Therefore, the accused is found not guilty and is acquitted,” she added.
The case stemmed from a dispute dating back to 2005 between Dynamos’ founding members and former players.
The matter, heard in Civil Case No. 93/05 before Chief Justice Luke Malaba, resulted in a ruling that each founder member or former player was entitled to a 1% share in the club.
The State alleged that in 2008, Dynamos held elections that saw the late football icon George Shaya elected as chairman, with Ernest Kamba as club secretary.
However, soon after, Marriot, in alleged collusion with the late Richard Chiminya, illegally appointed Chiminya as chairman, who then co-opted Marriot into the club’s leadership.
Following Chiminya’s death in 2012, the prosecution claimed that Marriot forged documents to install himself as Dynamos chairman.
On Monday, Marriot took the stand to defend himself after an earlier attempt to have the charges dismissed was rejected.
He maintained that he was a founding member of the club and dismissed claims that former players had any entitlement to shares.
“We do whatever we want. When we founded Dynamos Club, we were all players. Former players were not entitled to any shares,” he stated.
“Those who joined the club after 1963 are not entitled to any shares. All these people who are here were not there when the club was founded. We are the heroes of Dynamos; we are the founders of Dynamos.”
Prosecutor Dzidzai Josiah had presented the club’s 1963 constitution, which stipulated that founding members and players from that era were entitled to at least one share.
The prosecution also questioned whether Marriot had defied a 2005 Supreme Court order, which upheld the 1963 constitution as the club’s governing document until any official amendments were made.
Marriot defended his stance by drawing an analogy to Zimbabwe’s National Heroes Acre, where war veterans are buried.
“All those who went to war were accorded hero status and were buried at Heroes Acre. If you did not go to war, you can only be accorded that status if your family requests it,” he said.
Leslie Gwinji was listed as the complainant in the matter.
With the court ruling in his favor, Marriot remains at the helm of Dynamos, while the broader disputes over the club’s ownership and governance continue to linger.
