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Huawei-NetOne corruption court case restarts on 19 March

By , Editor, ITWeb Africa
Zimbabwe , 05 Mar 2014

Huawei-NetOne corruption court case restarts on 19 March

China’s Huawei, Zimbabwe’s State Procurement Board (SPB) and mobile network NetOne are back in court on 19 March to face a corruption case launched by businessman Tafadzwa Muguti.

ITWeb Africa has received confirmation from both Chinese telecoms company Huawei and Muguti that the case in Zimbabwe’s administrative court is back on track.

This comes after Zimbabwe's administrative court in Harare dismissed the case in January because Muguti and his lawyers failed to appear for a hearing.

Muguti claims an ex-employee did not give his company, Secure Dynamix, a delivered court notice for the hearing. Meanwhile, Muguti further says his lawyers didn’t receive a previous court notice for the January hearing either.

But the administrative court gave Muguti and his lawyers time to appeal the decision, and the court has set March 19, 2014 as the trial date.

Muguti originally launched the court case over questions about how Huawei won a $200 million dollar network upgrade deal for state-owned NetOne without going through a public tender.

Muguti is also asking why the SPB allowed the deal to go ahead even though documents reveal that the board had concerns over Huawei’s pricing.

“The judge agreed to a court date: we’re going to court on the 19th of March,” Muguti told ITWeb Africa.

Muguti told ITWeb Africa that his lawyers are submitting heads of argument this week to the administrative court.

Meanwhile, Huawei has confirmed to ITWeb Africa that it is back in court on 19 March.

“We will (be) following the court’s instruction and be there,” Jacky Zhang, a spokesman for Huawei’s Zimbabwe operations told ITWeb Africa.

“We did not comment on specific cases or individuals. However, Huawei always follows the requirements, procedures and decisions of recognised courts, and respects the judgments of those in authority,” said Zhang.

ITWeb Africa has reached out via phone and email to NetOne officials for comment, but the company has not responded on the matter at the time of writing.

Muguti; though, is upbeat about his court case’s prospects.

“We’re about to drop a nice bomb shell and we’ll see how that comes across,” Muguti told ITWeb Africa.

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