Former Zimbabwean president Felton Kamambo has said that his rivalry with former president Phillip Chiyangwa is the reason for the accusations of bribery levelled against him.
Kamambo, who is being investigated for bribery on many occasions, said before magistrate Bianca Makwande yesterday that Chiyangwa tampered with the ZIFA election procedure to make sure he lost.
He said that just 13 days before to the voting on December 18, 2018, he was informed that he was qualified to run in the polls as a result of Chiyangwa’s intervention.
Kamambo refuted allegations that he bought off voters to manipulate the poll.
“Three signatures are required to be successful as a presidential candidate, but they were told not to sign on my behalf. Those who signed my support letter were harassed and summoned to ZIFA.
“The Northern Region Division secretary withstood the pressure, the chairman of Harare City phoned me to say he was going to revoke his signature, and the third chairman, from Harare Province, called to say he had been frightened. He ultimately decided to go for South Africa during the campaign time, according to Kamambo.
He said that he wrote to Zifa, FIFA, and the election committee alerting them that he would organise a campaign rally in their respective areas due to the lack of time for him to run.
“ZIFA and its electoral committee stamped the letter, and FIFA acknowledged receipt of it.”
He met with campaign supporters in Mutare, Bulawayo, and Gweru.
Kamambo informed the court that the disputed payments were made to attendees of his meetings as recompense for lodging, meals, and travel expenses.
When asked how he ran the meetings and determined who should get reimbursement and how much, Kamambo responded as follows:
The delegates would tell me how much I owed them via the organisers, and as I had no idea where the money had come from, I was unable to determine whether or not it was exaggerated.
“We just kept the $300 payment that people were receiving for attending Zifa meetings as the other reason.”
In addition, Kamambo refuted claims that he bought votes to rig the election, claiming that he was elected without opposition despite having received less votes than necessary.
“In the first round, I received 34 votes, and Chiyangwa received about 20. To be crowned the winner, there had to be 40 votes cast.”
“Even though I lost the election, I was able to take office because Chiyangwa withdrew in the first round, leaving no other candidates.
“During his campaigns, Chiyangwa would claim he couldn’t be defeated by someone from a parastatal, so he wasn’t expecting me to get those votes in the first round. He was obviously surprised to see that I only needed six votes to reach 40.
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He said, “I’m convinced that’s why he didn’t move on to the next round.”
The ZIFA constitution and code of ethics, which provide that cases pertaining to football should not be handled in a criminal court, were presented by Kamambo’s attorney.
The trial is still ongoing today. It was Michael Reza on behalf of the State.
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