HARARE – Lawyers representing NetOne Cellular (Pvt) Ltd Chief Executive Officer, Raphael Mushanawani, have accused the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) of unlawful conduct, arguing that their client’s arrest stemmed from investigators’ misunderstanding of the mobile operator’s IT systems.
Mushanawani was taken into custody on Monday on allegations of fraud involving more than US$1.2 million.
According to ZACC, the CEO allegedly contracted Lunartech Solutions (Pvt) Ltd without board approval to upgrade NetOne’s SAGE 1000 system for US$257,600, despite an ongoing US$3.5 million project with Farevic Systems (Pvt) Ltd to implement a new SAP ERP platform.
He is further accused of signing unauthorized addendums that inflated the SAGE project cost to US$1.2 million and awarding a separate US$79,467 contract to Diztech (Pvt) Ltd.
In a strongly-worded letter dated September 30 and addressed to ZACC’s General Manager of Investigations, Mushanawani’s lawyers, Rubaya and Chatambudza Legal Practitioners, demanded his “urgent unconditional release,” describing his detention as “unlawful and baseless.”
“Our client is at a loss as to why he finds himself languishing in police custody over an issue which exposes your officers’ lack of understanding of IT systems,” the lawyers wrote.
They argued that investigators had failed to distinguish between NetOne’s IT platforms, insisting the SAGE 1000 upgrade was unrelated to the SAP ERP rollout.
“It should have been clear to your officers that the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning System … is totally different from the SAGE 1000 or SAGE L200,” the lawyers said.
The defence further noted that NetOne had no choice but to upgrade after SAGE South Africa advised it would cease supporting the SAGE ERP 1000 after 31 December 2024, warning that continued reliance on the outdated system would expose the company to operational risks.
ZACC, however, insists that Mushanawani acted outside governance procedures, entering into unauthorized contracts that prejudiced the state-owned mobile operator.
