Harare, (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has arrested NetOne Cellular (Pvt) Ltd chief executive officer, Raphael Mushanawani, over allegations of fraud involving more than US$1.2 million.
ZACC said the charges stem from a series of unauthorized contracts allegedly signed by Mushanawani while overseeing a major systems upgrade at the state-owned mobile network operator.
“The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has arrested NetOne Cellular (Pvt) Ltd’s Chief Executive Officer, Raphael Mushanawani, on allegations of fraud involving over US$1.2 million.
“It is alleged that in 2022, NetOne Cellular (Pvt) Ltd engaged Farevic Systems (Pvt) Ltd to replace the SAGE 1000 system with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at a contract price of US$3.5 million,” said ZACC.
However, while the ERP project was still underway, Mushanawani is alleged to have sidelined company protocols and bypassed both the Executive Committee and the Board to sign a separate deal with Lunartech Solutions (Pvt) Ltd.
The Lunartech contract, noted the ant-corruption watchdog, initially valued at US$257,600, was for upgrading the very system already marked for replacement, but Mushanawani, reportedly acting in collusion with Christopher Muchechemera from the finance department, went on to approve two addendums to the contract, ballooning the total cost to over US$1.2 million.
In a further twist, Mushanawani is also accused of awarding another unapproved contract to Diztech (Pvt) Ltd worth US$79,467.
The deal covered consultancy and training services that were already included under the original Farevic Systems agreement, effectively resulting in duplicated costs.
“The Commission has reasonable suspicion that the accused acted outside his mandate and without the required approvals, exposing the company to significant financial prejudice,” said ZACC.
Mushanawani was expected to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court, facing charges related to criminal abuse of office and fraudulent misrepresentation.
Netone is state-owned.
New Ziana
