The court acquitted former Zimbabwe Football Association president Felton Kamambo, who was accused of offering bribery to gain the presidency of the parent football federation.
Regional judge Bianca Makwande acquitted Kamambo after a long trial where the state failed to prove its case against him.
In her ruling, Ms Makwande noted that the state had failed to prove that Kamambo had bribed the agents, and its key witness Robert Matuka, who was Kamambo’s election campaign manager, disavowed his statement that the agents had been bribed.
“To make matters worse for the state, the key witness, Mr Robert Matuka, who was the accused’s campaign manager, denied his statement that he informed ZIFA that the accused was paying bribes to delegates.
“He confirmed that this money was to cover the expenses of delegates who were invited to the campaigns and was not bribe money,” she added.
During his cross-examination, Mr. Matuka confirmed that he was coerced into giving the bribery statement by the accused’s opponent, Mr. Philip Chiangwa.
Furthermore, Ms Makwande said the defense argued that the State had failed to prove the essential element of “agent”.
She said that although the evidence showed that the delegates were voters, there was no evidence to prove that they were agents. It has not been proven who their clients are. Admittedly, Section 169 of the Act does not give the state a blank check to name everyone as agents.
Ms Makwande said that given these circumstances, the court could not safely conclude that the money Kamambo deposited into voters’ accounts were gifts or considerations for them to vote for him in the ZIFA elections.
However, one might also think that given the expected number of voters, if Kamambo was bribing voters, he would be expected to pay more voters so that he could secure at least 50 percent of the votes.
In his defence, Kamambo told the court that he failed in the first round to achieve a clear victory.
He said that he won after his competitor withdrew from the competition in the second round.
The state alleged that Kamambo paid US$8,310 to 25 delegates in bribes to vote for him.
As a result of Kamambo’s alleged inducements on 16 December 2018, he received 35 votes compared to the 24 votes received by Mr Chiyangwa.
Kamambo was represented by his lawyer, Mr. Admire Rubaya. Announce
