Douglas Munatsi, partner Francis Dzanya wanted US$14 million from BancABC

The NewsHawks reports that Douglas Munatsi and partner Francis Dzanya wanted US$14 million from BancABC following the role he played in the founding of the African Banking Corporation, now trading as BancABC.

At the time of his demise, Munatsi and his business partner Francis Dzanya were in a legal battle with BancABC Zimbabwe over US$14 134 357.32.

He was involved in the merger of Bard Discount House, First Merchant Bank, UDC and ULC Companies that were operating in Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi (LFC), Tanzania and Zambia.

Munatsi became the first CEO of the bank in 2000 while Dzanya was appointed group chief financial officer in 2005.

By the time the duo left BancABC in 2014, the institution has grown its assets to more than US$2 billion. The bank was taken over by Atlas Mara.

Court documents show that Munatsi and Dzanya had sued BancABC 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 pretrial 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 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.