FOUR Caps United players, accused of assaulting referee Happy Mabhena following their 1-0 defeat by Chicken Inn at Barbourfields Stadium on October 23, have been acquitted by the Premier Soccer League’s disciplinary committee (DC).
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Carlos Rusere, John Zhuwawu, Dominic Chungwa and Ronald Chitiyo were found not guilty after the match commissioner Sabelo Maphosa cleared them of any wrong-doing. Giving her evidence, she said she did not see anyone assault the referee.
The hearing was held on November 13 and the judgment is dated November 29.
Mabhena did not attend the hearing to give his side of the story, leaving the DC chaired by Harare lawyer Raphael Tsivama with no option but to acquit the quartet.
Part of the judgment reads: “It was obvious from the match commissioner’s testimony, she neither witnessed any assault or intimidation nor received any report to that effect from the referee or any other official.” The DC said Maphosa’s testimony corroborated that of the defence led by Caps United administrator Morton Dodzo who stated that: “The referee was not assaulted or even touched and was in fact escorted to the dressing room by the Caps United team manager and a Chicken Inn official.”
The DC further stated: “The situation was not helped by the fact that the referee (Mabhena) was not available to give evidence. According to the match commissioner (Maphosa) she called the referee with a view to travelling together (to Harare) for the hearing (since they are both based in Bulawayo) but he would either not pick up his phone or when he did, he would give the impression that he had other business to attend to. There was no clear explanation as to why the referee was not available for the hearing.”
They said Mabhena had communicated two hours before commencement of the hearing that he was getting into Harare and was supposed to be on time for the proceedings but never reported to the PSL offices.
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“Therefore in the absence of any evidence implicating the accused persons, the committee has no option but to acquit the accused persons,” the DC said.
Chicken Inn have since written to the Premier Soccer League expressing their dissatisfaction with the ruling.
“The hearing of the matter is clouded in secrecy as our team officials, who were present or police, were not invited for the hearing and we guess the police report was not even presented. The match commissioner (Maphosa) from what we heard from our administrator (Tapiwa Marime), who briefly attended the hearing, deviated from her written report and pretended as if she did not see what happened at the stadium for almost 30 minutes after the match. We would love to have sight of her written statement and what she said during the hearing,” wrote Chicken Inn secretary Tavengwa Hara.
Hara said the players involved admitted to committing a criminal offence by paying an admission of guilty fine at Mzilikazi Police Station.
Chicken Inn have since been ordered by the Bulawayo City Council to pay for repairs to property that was damaged during the melee.
