Eight soccer referees and linesmen arrested in Operation Dribble appeared briefly before a Randburg magistrate in three separate hearings on Monday, following the police swoop against alleged match fixing.
In the dock were Patrick Banda (31) Ishmael Fatyela (33) Justice Dywili (30) all from Kimberley, Reuben Kgatla (38) of Alexandra, Johannesburg, Jonas Mokonyane (37) of Mokopane and Kganagwe Michael Sikwe (36) of Soweto.
Mokonyane was released on warning pending a second corruption charge. Charges have not yet been formulated. They were granted bail of R1 000 each and will appear in court on July 27.
Another two men, Christopher Choane and Patrick Phandilwe, both from Bloemfontein, were also released on R1 000 bail and were ordered to appear again on July 19.
One more official is expected to appear in another Randburg court on Monday afternoon.
Police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said Dribble kicked off at 2am on Friday morning. The task team, headed by Gauteng’s deputy provincial commissioner, Afrika Khumalo, and consisting of a number of detectives, began the investigation two months ago at the request of SA Football Association (Safa) president Molefi Olifant.
Oliphant had admitted recently that he was ”disappointed” that local soccer was blighted by match fixing. ”One would always expect that the outcome of a match should be decided by the two clubs and not by any official influencing the result,” said Olifant.
He also confirmed that unlike the incidents of cricket match fixing, gambling was not the cause of result tampering: ”In this case it is about club officials paying off referees to ensure their team wins.” – Sapa