I lied — Nyoni

Throughout the cross-examination, Nyoni contradicted himself and continued to change his statements from the originals he gave to the police and the initial statements to the court.
This prompted the state to ask him whether he had lied at one stage to which he said yes.
Asked whether he had been involved in any match-fixing before, Nyoni said: “I should say yes, in the Central Region.”

He told the court he did not benefit from the alleged scandal and his duty was only to instruct referees to fix the matches.
Contrary to his initial claims that the vice chairperson of the Zifa referee’s committee Samukeliso Silengane who is also on suspension, also gave instructions to the referees at the Zifa office before they departed for the matches, Nyoni told the court that it was him who addressed and gave instructions to five referees who were all going to officiate the Tripple B/Chrome Stars match and not Silengane.

He said he had told the referees about the instructions to fix the match.
Nyoni, who is represented by Brighton Ndove of Marondedze, Mukuku and   Ndove Legal Practitioners, changed most of his initial statements during cross examination.
Contrary to his claims that he was telephoned by Banda summoning him to his office, he told the court he was actually telephoned by his secretary but could not see the number because he received the phone call on a landline.

Asked to confirm that he never spoke to Banda and Silengane, Nyoni said he never did but later on changed and said he was told by Silengane about the plans to fix the matches and he had no reason not to believe her because she was his boss.
In his warned and recorded statement, Nyoni told the police that he met Banda a week after the alleged fixed matches but yesterday he changed and told the court that he met him three weeks after the matches.

When asked why Patrick Hokonya was happy when Tripple B lost the match, Nyoni said he never spoke to him after the match and it was Silengane who told him so.
He alleged his only contact with Hokonya was when he inquired about transport money (although not specifying whose transport) that was.
Asked whether he knew Silengane was investigating him after revelations of the allegations of match-fixing, Nyoni said the suspended vice chairperson of the referee’s committee was only holding him at ransom because he was not serving her interests. He alleged Silengane started the investigations because the referee who handled the match in which Hardbody won had been demoted by the match commissioner following the results.

Nyoni at some stage said he did not know Banda’s interests.
He confessed he was afraid of Silengane because she was very strict prompting the court to ask whether that was the reason he had a different story about Banda and Hokonya to which he said no.

However, Nyoni further told the court that he was not suspended for match- fixing but for a recorded conversation where some voices were heard talking about the match-fixing plan.
The trial continues on Tuesday with Nyoni calling one of his defence witnesses Martin Shoko.