Outgoing MTN Group marketing director Santie Botha has become the latest in a growing list of senior executives at the JSE-listed cellphone giant to sell shares worth millions of rand.

Botha, who announced recently she would leave the employ of the group, had sold 104 996 shares at R129,04/share, netting her R13,5m.

The sale comes just days after MTN SA MD Karel Pienaar bagged R15,4m by selling 122 000 shares.

Outgoing group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko offloaded 3,2m shares in the telecommunications group, earning him a cool R424m. Nhleko will use a portion of the proceeds to settle personal debt “arising from the early termination of a transaction concluded with a commercial bank”.

An analyst told TechCentral last week that Nhleko’s sale of shares was not unexpected as he would want to diversify his portfolio now that he’s leaving MTN.

Nhleko is due to step down in March 2011. It’s expected the MTN board will announce his successor soon. — Staff reporter, TechCentral