BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA
THE trial of former NetOne chief executive Lazurus Muchenje and three other employees who allegedly offered unregistered Netone virtual lines to a foreign company was yesterday postponed to January 18, 2021.
Muchenje, Darlington Gutu, Spencer Manguwa and Shamaine Kadende allegedly entered into an unlawful agreement with Bankai International, a Mauritian company representing NetOne without the board’s approval.
It was not also approved by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies.
They appeared before magistrate Bianca Makwande.
The State, represented by Panganai Chiutsi, alleges that the four signed a Number Range Provision contract with Bankai International and later supplied 2 000 virtual lines to the company.
The virtual lines were configured on the NetOne’s Nokia Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) without Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards and subscriber details.
As a result, any calls made using the lines by-passed the home location register thereby contravening Statutory Instrument 95 of 2014 of Postal and Telecommunication Regulations. The trial will run on a continuous court roll from January 18 to 21, 2021.
