Boxing promoter, Clyde Musonda has filed a $100 000 lawsuit against the Zimbabwe National Boxing Control Board (ZNBCB), following the cancellation of his licence over what he described as “frivolous and ridiculous charges”.
Musonda, who is the programmes manager at Deltaforce Boxing Academy, had his licence revoked a fortnight ago, and was elbowed out from organising a boxing tournament a week later that he was co-hosting together with Kalakoda Promotions of South Africa and Kwesé Sports.
His charges include allegedly using members of the former First Family to solicit for sponsorship without their permission, issuing statements/interviews to the media about professional boxing without clearance from the board, as well as bypassing the board seeking to deal directly with the Sports minister.
But Musonda is challenging the ban, and has, through his lawyers Matsika Legal Practitioners, written to the ZNBCB, demanding that they reinstate the licence.
In a letter dated January 23, the lawyers reckon that their client lost an investment amounting to $10 000 after he was stopped from planning for the tournament, dubbed New Dawn, which was staged at the City Sports Centre in Harare.
“We are instructed by our client, that on January 20, 2018, you served our client with a letter purportedly banning him from training, management or matchmaking of professional boxers and any boxing-related activities.”
They said that the ban was done without affording their client the opportunity to defend the “unfounded and unsubstantiated claims”, which formed the basis of the ban.
“This was against the legal principles of natural justice, as our client was never advised of the impending disciplinary hearing and the allegations he faced in contravention of the Boxing and Wrestling Control Act, as the letter dated January 18 only invited him for a meeting.
“We are further instructed that in the same letter, you insinuate to state that our client fled from your offices before the meeting, while it was the (ZNBCB) secretary-general, who permitted our client to leave the premises, for other advised engagements. The board then purportedly proceeded to conduct a hearing to the detriment of our client, without affording him an opportunity to defend himself.”
Matsika Legal Practitioners demand the ZNBCB provide proof of their allegations against Musonda, failure to which they will demand a substantive amount of money.
“In the event of your failure to produce that proof, we are instructed to demand, as we, hereby, do, that you publicly retract the statement regarding to our client within seven days of receipt of this letter and pay to our offices the amount of $100 000 being defamatory charges, together with the interest at the prescribed rate calculated from January 22, 2018, to date of full and final payment.”
The local boxing board has also been told to uplift the ban and give Musonda an opportunity to defend himself.
“If you fail to comply with this demand, our client’s instructions are to take legal action for inter alia, an application for declaratur on an urgent basis and against the board, which costs you shall bear on a higher scale,” Matsika Legal Practitioners warned.
–Newsday.co.zw
