‘Cosmas Nyoni is a liar’

fixing saga, a Bulawayo magistrate heard yesterday.

Magistrate, Sophie Matimba, was yesterday told that Nyoni fabricated his evidence that has since been used to suspend Southern Region chairman Gift Banda from the Zifa board.
Nyoni appeared before the Bulawayo magistrate yesterday facing a charge of criminal defamation, after Banda filed the charges against him last week. Banda accuses Nyoni of lying that the two met to discuss the issue of match-fixing.

The development brings a new twist to the Centralgate saga, which has now spilled into the courts and is likely to see the scandal, where referees are being investigated for corruption, being resolved in the courts of law.
Banda, Central Region chairman Patrick Hokonya and suspended vice-chairperson of the Zifa Referee’s Committee Samukeliso Silengane were fingered by Nyoni that they were behind the match-fixing scandal.

The State, led by Robin Mukura, opened its case by calling two witnesses, Banda and Silengane to testify in the criminal defamation and the drama turned out to be largely centred on the match-fixing events.
Banda accused Nyoni of supplying false information to the media, during the period between November 30 and December 3, in which the former referee claims he was summoned to Banda’s office to discus about fixing a match in the Central Region. The game in contention was played on October 8 between Tripple B and Hardbody. Nyoni, of 3765 Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, is being represented by Brighton Ndove of Marondedze, Mukuku and Ndove Legal Practitioners.

Speaking through his lawyer, Nyoni said he met Banda in his office to discuss the match-fixing issue.
He also told the court he met Silengane, whom he alleges to be the central figure in this match-fixing scam, before the match.
He claimed Silengane said she had been sent by Banda and Hokonya to arrange for the match to be fixed and to give him money to ensure the job was done.

Nyoni went on to say when he visited Banda’s office soon after the matches, the suspended Zifa board member reacted strangely about a recorded disc with the conversation between Nyoni and other people planning to fix the match. Testifying separately in court, Banda and Silengane said Nyoni had lied both to the police and to the court as he had given conflicting statements.
Banda said as much as it was true that Nyoni was familiar with his office, he had visited three times since 2009, it was wrong for him to claim he got to know the office when he was summoned to arrange a match-fixing scam.

Banda told the court that he only phoned Nyoni after the referee had been fingered in the scam, following a Zifa board meeting, to ask him whether the allegations were true.
He denied sending him a text message about the plan to fix some games as alleged by Nyoni.
Banda said circumstances that should prove in court that Nyoni lied are an affidavit, which he wrote telling police how he met one Albert Mbuse, to discuss fixing a match.

Nyoni’s lawyer denied seeing such a document. Banda also want to use a report compiled by the Zifa vice-president, Ndumiso Gumede, on the alleged match-fixing scam and related newspaper articles to prove that Nyoni was lying.

“Why would a person who is not lying give five different statements to different people?” Banda asked the court.
Silengane told the court that Nyoni only wanted to fix her because she was one who instituted the investigations after seeing a number of irregularities in the referees’ reports.
Silengane said she had never been involved in match-fixing, which is why she contacted and used another referee, Mbuse, to set a trap on Nyoni. She said Mbuse later revealed that such activities had been happening with Nyoni playing a big part.

Silengane said the only contact she had with Nyoni was when officials from the Central Region requested referees from the Southern Region because some teams were running neck-to-neck in the championship race.

She then sought advice from Nyoni, the commissioner responsible for appointing referees then. Silengane said she was also told at that point that it was not the first time the Central Region had requested referees from the Southern Region. She told the court that Nyoni was the one who appointed the referees to officiate in the Midlands, in contrast to his claims that she did.

Silengane testified she told Hokonya her committee would not be able to fund the referees’ expenses and he understood.
She said she did not know who paid them and only got to know the names of those who were sent to officiate in the match after seeing the post-match reports, as per the norm according to Zifa rules. She said that is when she instituted an investigation after seeing unusual features in the report, which usually only states whether transport or allowances were paid without mentioning who paid and in what way.

She denied ever paying the referees who officiated in the match and said she was only phoned by one referee after the match who told her he had not been paid all his transport allowance.
Banda and Silengane contend that Nyoni, since he claimed to have seen the irregularities in the way the referees for the particular match were paid, could have refused to accept the said money or at least informed his superiors.

The State closed its case and will put Nyoni on his defence tomorrow.