HARARE – NetOne chief executive officer Raphael Mushanawani, who was facing fraud charges, walked free on Thursday after Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa removed him from remand, ruling that “there is no evidence linking him to the alleged crime.”
Mushanawani’s lawyers had argued that he should never have been arrested, insisting the allegations stemmed from a misunderstanding of information technology systems by Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) investigators.
He faced accusations of commissioning a system upgrade without board approval.
“Accused is at a loss as to why he finds himself arrested and prosecuted over an issue which exposes ZACC officers’ lack of understanding of IT systems,” said Admire Rubaya of Rubaya and Chatambudza Legal Practitioners, representing Mushanawani.
Rubaya told the court that NetOne’s SAGE 1000 system had reached its “end-of-sale” stage, and SAGE South Africa had formally advised that maintenance and support would cease after December 31, 2024.
“Contrary to the state’s 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. This was key and had been approved by the board,” Rubaya said.
He added that it was misleading for the prosecution to allege Mushanawani acted without board authority when “the same board approved the Strategic Plan for 2025, which included the upgrade of the SAGE system, which is currently operational.”
Mushanawani had been on remand since his arrest in September, denying the allegations throughout.
His lawyers earlier wrote to ZACC accusing unnamed rivals of engineering his arrest as part of “a well-orchestrated ploy” to remove him from NetOne.
“There are certain individuals who are targeting his post who have approached you (ZACC) on the basis of name-dropping very powerful individuals… yet there is no involvement of any such political figures,” the lawyers said in their letter.
“The grand plan is for these instigators to take over NetOne.”
The case stemmed from a 2022 contract in which NetOne hired Farevic Systems (Pvt) Ltd to replace its outdated SAGE 1000 system with a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at a cost of US$3.5 million. Prosecutors said that while the project was still underway, Mushanawani clandestinely engaged Lunartech Solutions (Pvt) Ltd to upgrade the SAGE 1000 system without board or executive approval.
His lawyers dismissed the allegations as fabricated, attaching board documents which they said proved that every step had been authorised.
“It should have been clear to your officers that the SAP ERP system contracted to Farevic Systems is totally different from the SAGE 1000 or SAGE L200,” Rubaya said.
They argued that continuing to use SAGE 1000 after December 31, 2024, without support from SAGE South Africa posed a significant business risk as NetOne’s licences had expired, making the upgrade both necessary and prudent.
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