HARARE – NetOne chief executive officer Raphael Mushanawani was on Wednesday granted US$500 bail by Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa following his arrest on allegations of fraud involving more than US$1.2 million.
Gofa ruled that Mushanawani was not a flight risk, noting that he is gainfully employed and has a fixed abode.
As part of his bail conditions, Mushanawani was ordered to surrender his passport to the clerk of court and not to interfere with state witnesses.
His arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) earlier this week stemmed from the state-owned mobile operator’s decision in 2022 to engage Farevic Systems to replace its SAGE 1000 accounting system with a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform at a contract price of US$3.5 million.
While the project was still underway, Mushanawani allegedly acted in common purpose with NetOne’s chief technology officer Christopher Muchechemera to secretly contract Lunartech Solutions for an upgrade of the same SAGE 1000 system at a cost of US$257,600.
Investigators say Mushanawani went on to sign two more addendums with Lunartech, inflating the cost of upgrading a system that was already earmarked for replacement to more than US$1.2 million.
ZACC further alleges that Mushanawani entered into another unapproved deal with Diztech, paying US$79,467 for consultancy and training services which were already covered under the Farevic Systems contract.
The transactions were allegedly carried out without the knowledge or approval of NetOne’s executive committee and board.
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