South Africa’s hard-working new communications minister, Yunus Carrim, is tackling the challenges in his portfolio with such gusto that he appears to have taken many industry players by surprise. I had the opportunity twice this past week to watch Carrim in action
Browsing: Irene Charnley
Although an MTN-commissioned investigation has ostensibly cleared the company of wrongdoing in Iran, its report is replete with examples of how the telecommunications group’s well-connected executives intervened to influence South African diplomacy in its favour. MTN
The Hoffmann Committee, appointed by MTN, has cleared the Johannesburg-listed telecommunications group of wrongdoing in Iran, calling allegations made by rival Turkcell a “fabric of lies, distortions and inventions”. MTN told shareholders on Friday that the committee, chaired top jurist
Uganda is to get a fourth-generation (4G) mobile network using long-term evolution (LTE) technology. MTN’s subsidiary in the East African country will deploy the network in the coming months. MTN claims it will be the first to offer 4G in East Africa, although it appears the company has overlooked Smile Telecoms
Smile Telecommunications, the telecommunications operator started five years ago by former MTN executive Irene Charnley, has signed a deal that will see it investing hundreds of millions of dollars to build fourth-generation (4G) broadband networks in Uganda, Tanzania
Last week Republicans seized on news that David Plouffe, a senior advisor in the White House, had accepted $100 000 from a subsidiary of MTN for two speeches he gave in Nigeria shortly before joining the White House staff in 2010. “Today’s story raises serious questions about [US President] Barack Obama’s senior
Former ambassador to Iran Yusuf Saloojee has been suspended from his position at the department of international relations & cooperation. “Yes, he has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation,” spokesperson Clayson Monyela said. The investigation related to allegations that Saloojee accepted
Vodacom’s long-running legal dispute with a fixer who recently won a case against it in a Democratic Republic of Congo court is still simmering. And accusations are being made of improper influence over the Congo’s judiciary. The Kinshasa Commercial Court ruled in January that Vodacom
Turkish cellphone operator Turkcell has accused SA-based multinational mobile giant MTN of orchestrating a “cover-up” rather than a credible investigation into claims that the South Africans bribed and influence-peddled their way into Iran in 2005. The Turkish company said in a statement that
New twists have emerged in the US$4,2bn lawsuit filed by MTN’s cellphone rival, Turkcell, in a US court. Chris Kilowan, the disgruntled former MTN director in Iran who, according to sources, approached Turkcell with MTN memos that formed part of the court filings but have yet to be verified, could find that his actions backfire on him.