Published: 14 hours ago

NetOne Chief Executive Officer Raphael Mushanawani's arrest on allegations of US$1.2 million fraud has triggered claims of an internal power struggle, with his lawyers insisting the charges are fabricated to force his removal from the State-owned mobile operator.

Mushanawani's lawyer, Admire Rubaya, wrote to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) on September 30, 2025, demanding his client's immediate release, arguing that the detention was unlawful.

Rubaya claimed Mushanawani is a victim of "a well-orchestrated ploy" by rivals leveraging political name-dropping to mislead investigators.

"There are certain individuals who are targeting his post who have approached you (ZACC) on the basis of name dropping very powerful individuals who sit in the high echelons of power in this country," the letter reads.
"The grand plan is for these instigators to take over as the people at the helm of NetOne."

The fraud allegations stem from a 2022 contract to replace NetOne's ageing SAGE 1000 system with a US$3.5 million SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system supplied by Farevic Systems (Pvt) Ltd.

ZACC alleges that while the ERP project was underway, Mushanawani unlawfully contracted Lunartech Solutions to upgrade the SAGE 1000 system without board or committee approval. The commission further claims he signed off on additional contracts, including a US$79,467 consultancy deal with Diztech (Pvt) Ltd.

Mushanawani's defence team disputes the allegations, saying all contracts were properly authorised. They attached documents showing board approvals and argued that the upgrade of the outdated SAGE system was necessary because SAGE South Africa had announced it would stop maintenance and support beyond December 31, 2024.

"Contrary to your claims, the upgrading of the SAGE ERP 1000 to SAGE L200 was imperative as it was a viable alternative wherein SAGE South Africa would provide vendor maintenance and support," the letter states.

His lawyers also insist that only two payments were made - US$184,800 and US$88,002.57 - far below the US$1.2 million cited in the charges.

On the Diztech allegations, they flatly denied wrongdoing:
"For the record, there is no contract that was signed between Diztech (Pvt) Ltd and NetOne as alleged, neither has there been any payment of even a dime to Diztech (Pvt) Ltd from NetOne relating to consultancy and training services."

The defence argues that ZACC investigators failed to appreciate the technical realities of IT systems, stressing that both the SAP ERP and SAGE upgrades had to run in parallel to secure NetOne's operations and avoid hacking or revenue loss.

They maintain Mushanawani is being punished for "doing things right," and that the allegations are part of a broader scheme to unseat him from the telecoms giant.
- online

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