ROBERT Matoka, a key state witness, made a dramatic u-turn by disowning his written police statement when he appeared on the witness stand in the bribery case against Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) president Felton Kamambo.
Matoka, Kamambo’s campaign manager for the 2018 Zifa election, was made a state witness who argued that the two statements he gave to the police incriminated Kamambo were given under duress.
Instead, he has accused former Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa of influencing him in nailing and accusing Kamambo of bribing voters of the 2018 Zifa elections.
Appearing before Regional Magistrate Bianca, Makwande, on Monday, Matoka said that Chiyangwa interfered with his first statement. However, he did not get into detail on how the property mogul did that.
Matoka further claimed that he was threatened with arrest if he did not nail Kamambo and was made to sign another statement under duress.
Kamambo is accused of bribing voters by sending them money through the mobile money platform Ecocash, through Matoka.
Matoka admitted sending money to voters, saying it was reimbursement for their transport fares and not bribes.
According to Matoka, Chiyangwa wanted to bar Kamambo from contesting for the Zifa presidency, but it took the intervention of Fifa for sanity to prevail.
“My duty was to rally people to come to Kamambo’s campaign meetings. Kamambo was behind time in terms of campaigns as many impediments were thrown in his way. Chiyangwa had even banned him from contesting. So there was an idea to refund the people of their transport money which they would use to attend the campaigns and not bribes,” said Matoka.
“Something happened in those statements. Chiyangwa took advantage of the fight between Kamambo and me and interfered with the first statement. On the second statement, I was threatened with arrest, and I found it already written, and I was made to sign.”
Through its application to Magistrate Makwande, the State wants Matoka to be declared a hostile witness aimed at destroying their case against him and the ruling will be made on Tuesday.
The State says he is lying and just reneging from the statements he made.
