AT the time of his mysterious death, which relatives and friends believe was a cold blooded murder, Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency boss Douglas Munatsi and his business partner Francis Dzanya were locked in a battle with BancABC Zimbabwe — a financial institution he helped to found — over US$14 134 357.32.
OWEN GAGARE
Munatsi played a critical role in the founding of African Banking Corporation, now trading as BancABC, after orchestrating the merger of Bard Discount House, First Merchant Bank, UDC and ULC Companies that were operating in Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi (LFC), Tanzania and Zambia.
He became the first CEO of the bank in 2000 while Dzanya was appointed group chief financial officer in 2005, helping the institution to grow its assets to more than US$2 billion by the time they left the institution in 2014.
The bank was taken over by Atlas Mara.
Court documents, however, show that Munatsi and Dzanya had dragged BancABC to court as they jointly sought US$14 million from the bank, in High Court case number 11582/17. Munatsi was the first plaintiff while Dzanya was the second plaintiff.
The joint pre-trial conference minute shows that issues in contention were “whether defendant is liable to pay plaintiff USD$4 769,034.40 as follows, (a) the sum of USD$2 531,726.30 to the first plaintiff; (b) The sum of USD$2, 237,308.00 to the second plaintiff; (c) Whether defendant is entitled to interest on the sums set out above from the date of issue of Treasury Bills to the date of payment of the sums involved.
“Whether defendant is liable to pay plaintiff damages as follows: (a) USD$4 971,746.88 to the first plaintiff; (b) USD$4 393,576.04 to the second plaintiff.”
The court also wanted to determine “whether plaintiffs breached the fiduciary duties they owed defendant; whether plaintiffs are entitled to a refund of only the capital sums they invested and whether the claim in reconvention is prescribed.”
After leaving BancABC, Munatsi, Dzanya and Beki Ndlovu, who was the group chief financial officer, founded DBF Capital Partners, an investment holding company in January 2015.
