By Staff Writer
Copyright dailynews
‘By Rutendo Ngara
ngarar@dailynews.co.zw
HARARE magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa yesterday said “the courts are not governed by social media”, as she freed NetOne Cellular (NetOne) chief executive Raphael Mushanawani on bail.
This comes as his lawyers Rubaya and Chatambudza had protested in a Tuesday letter – to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) – that their client had been “unlawfully detained” and the “public sector executive was a victim of boardroom fights”.
“We have the law, courts are not governed by social media,” Gofa said, adding claims that Mushanawani was a flight risk were unfounded, as he never resisted arrest and complied with the crime-busting agency’s orders after being called in three times by its investigating officers.
“If he wanted to escape he could have done so… when you allowed him to go and buy food, he could have flown to Mozambique or Zambia..,” she said before stressing the fact that he was also not cuffed since the day he was nabbed and, therefore, he was a good candidate for bail.
With NetOne issuing a US$3,5 million enterprise resource planning tender to Farevic Systems (Farevic) in 2022 and another US$1,2 million job to upgrade its SAGE 1000 core operating system to Lunartech Solutions (Lunartech), Mushanawani stands accused of hiring and allegedly paying the latter US$654 000 – without board approval – and when the bigger project was still running or pending.
But the seasoned engineer’s lawyers are digging in amid claims that his detractors had “misled ZACC, as all he had sought to do was fix or implement necessary repairs – to mitigate a serious business risk – to the outdated system while awaiting implementation of the bigger technological project – all done above board.
“There are certain individuals who are targeting his (Mushanawani’s) post who have approached you (ZACC) on the basis of name dropping very powerful individuals… in this country yet there is no involvement of any such political figures,” Rubaya and Chatambudza said in a September 30 letter.
“The grand plan is for these instigators to take over as the people at the helm of Netone,” it said.
While ZACC had found issues with Mushanawani “secretly hiring Lunartech after bypassing board sub-committees and the main council”, his lawyers say “it’s all fabricated as documentary evidence to refute the allegations shows that everything had been done with board approval”.
“Our client is at a loss as to why he finds himself languishing… over an issue, which exposes your officers’ lack of understanding of IT systems,” Rubaya and Chatambudza said in the stinging letter.
“It should have been clear.., that the SAP ERP, which Netone… contracted Farevic to supply and implement, is totally different from SAGE.., (which had reached its end-of-sale stage when its supplier communicated to NetOne that it was not going to be maintained and supported… beyond December 2024,” they said before disputing that there was also a US$1,2 million outstanding bill or tab for the upgrades tucked into two contract addendums.
“…the upgrade… to SAGE L200 was imperative as it was a viable alternative… approved (as part of the) strategic plan for 2025 (which recognised that there was a clear understanding and need to modernise the technology infrastructure,” Rubaya and Chatambudza said.
Further, the lawyers not only asserted that since the new ERP system is not yet operational, but the two could run parallel and as it was also critical for NetOne to prevent hacking as well as income losses.
“…the only payments which have been made thus far are for US$184,800 and US$88,002.57,” the letter said, adding that ZACC might have also been misled to believe Mushanawani had been made to unlawfully sign a US$79,467 contract with Diztech (Private) Limited for training services when it was untrue.
“For the record, there is no contract… between Diztech… and Netone as alleged, neither has there been any payment of even a dime (and) connected to SAGE L200, since no such services were ever provided..,” Rubaya and Chatambudza said.
