Release him immediately: High Court declares after Ex-Old Mutual boss was jailed 15 years over 2 rounds of lula lula with UZ student

A High Court ruling has overturned the conviction and 15-year prison sentence imposed on former Old Mutual business development manager Musa Nyasha Dube Manyika, ordering his immediate release after finding serious and irreconcilable problems in the record of his trial.

Manyika, who had spent about 6 months in prison, was convicted in March 2026 on 2 counts of rape involving a 24-year-old University of Zimbabwe student who had worked as an intern and was connected to the Old Mutual scholarship programme. The High Court set aside the magistrates’ court proceedings and quashed the conviction and sentence.

Veteran Lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri, who made headline a fortnight ago after refusing a staggering US$350,000 gift from Wicknell Chivayo, citing professional reasons, was instructed by Admire Rubaya and appeared with Rubaya and Norman Chimuka, to represent Manyika in the appeal. The appeal succeeded after the defence identified dozens of inconsistencies in the record, including evidence attributed differently to witnesses and separate versions of the accused’s defence bearing the same magistrate’s signature.

Uriri pressed the court to confront whether the written record could reliably show what had taken place during the trial. He asked: “Does the record tell us what happened in the magistrates court? Which version of the record is correct?”

The High Court found that the discrepancies were material and could not be reconciled. The National Prosecuting Authority also raised concern about the state of the record, telling the court that “the record before the court does not give a true reflection of the proceedings in the court a quo”. The prosecution had proposed that the matter be sent back to the magistrates’ court for the trial magistrate to explain the inconsistencies. The High Court instead set aside the proceedings and ordered Manyika’s immediate release.

The case had drawn attention because it involved a senior employee, a student intern and a scholarship programme. The allegations concerned 2 incidents, one said to have occurred in November 2022 and another on June 19, 2024. Manyika denied the charges and said he and the complainant had been in a consensual relationship. The magistrate who convicted him in March accepted the prosecution’s case and imposed an effective 15-year term.

The first allegation related to a visit to Old Mutual Gardens in Harare. The complainant was said to have received a WhatsApp message asking her to help pack banners stored in the building’s basement. After the task, the prosecution alleged, Manyika invited her to his office, where the assault occurred. The defence disputed the account and pointed to differences in the evidence recorded during the trial.

The second allegation related to a meeting at Ashbrittle Shops on June 19, 2024. The complainant was said to have met Manyika after he contacted her again. She later entered his car. The prosecution’s case was that he raped her during that encounter. The two incidents formed the basis of the 2 counts on which the magistrate convicted him.

The appeal papers also raised questions about when and how the complainant reported the incidents and what she told others and medical staff. The defence referred to her visit to the University of Zimbabwe clinic, where she sought treatment for vaginal discharge, and argued that the information recorded there did not identify Manyika or set out the circumstances of the alleged assault. It also challenged the account of what happened when she saw security guards and questioned the delay in reporting the allegations.

Those arguments formed part of the defence’s appeal, but the decisive issue identified by the High Court was the reliability of the magistrates’ court record itself. The record was said to contain about 50 material discrepancies, including different answers attributed to the same witness in response to the same question. The appeal also identified 2 versions of Manyika’s defence, both signed by the same magistrate.

The ruling brings a sharp end to the conviction handed down in March. At that time, the magistrate found Manyika guilty on both counts and sentenced him to a total of 15 years in prison, with the sentences running concurrently. He was taken into custody and remained there until the High Court’s decision in October.

The case also arrives as Zimbabwe’s higher-education sector begins putting a national framework for sexual-harassment prevention into practice. In 2025, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education launched a model anti-sexual-harassment policy for universities and other higher and tertiary institutions. The framework sets out formal and informal reporting channels, confidentiality protections, investigation procedures, disciplinary measures and routes to medical, psychosocial and legal support.

The policy was developed for campuses, while the incidents in Manyika’s case were linked to a workplace and a scholarship relationship. But the case involved a university student moving between study, internship and a corporate programme. The national policy’s planned expansion and implementation across higher-education institutions makes the safeguarding of students in those overlapping settings an ongoing issue for educational bodies and employers alike.

For Manyika, the immediate consequence of the High Court decision is freedom after months in custody and the reversal of the conviction that sent him to prison. For the courts, the decision turned on a basic question about the trial record: whether it reliably captured the evidence and proceedings on which the conviction rested.