Kasinauyo pressured me: Pasuwa

By Tarisai Machakaire |Daily News|

Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa yesterday claimed that former Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) board member, Edzai Kasinauyo, pressured him to disclose his line-up, as the trial on the alleged match-fixing scandal continued yesterday.

Pasuwa was testifying during the trial of ex-Zifa bosses Henrietta Rushwaya, Kasinauyo and Nation Dube, who are facing bribery charges.

The trio are represented by Simon Mupindu, Harrison Nkomo and Simon Simango, respectively.

Pasuwa told the court Kasinauyo interfered with his duties by prematurely demanding a list of players that were going to participate in the first and second leg of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

“What I would usually do after selecting my players was to give the list to then chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze but Kasinauyo kept pressuring me to release the list and I refused,” he said.

He added that; “I do not have much to say in connection with this case except for what I gathered from calls and e-mails received from Leeroy Waguta. Waguta called me and made me promise not to tell anyone because there were influential people involved.

“I kept the information to myself but one of the days a former Zifa technical director bumped into one of the messages sent by Waguta and that was how the issue came out.”

Pasuwa said he was then called to Zifa president Philip Chiyangwa’s offices to clarify the issue before being instructed to present all the messages to their lawyer.

However, Kasinauyo, through his lawyer, refuted the allegations and claimed that the only list his client had requested was for players that had played against Malawi and had outstanding payments.

Rushwaya’s lawyer, Mupindu, argued that Pasuwa had failed to prove any legal basis to claim that his client had committed the offence.

The lawyers objected to have messages considered as evidence, arguing that it was hearsay and not admissible in court.

Mashingaidze also testified and claimed that he was approached by Pasuwa and Maxwell Takaendesa-Jongwe, saying they had messages indicating a plot to fix matches by the accused persons.

Allegations against the trio arose between January and February this year when Rushwaya allegedly connived with Kasinauyo, Ian Gorowa, and Dube to engage in match-fixing targeting the South African Premier League.