Browsing: Phuthuma Nhleko

Former MTN CEO Phuthuma Nhleko is rejoining the group’s board, this time as its chairman, outgoing chairman Cyril Ramaphosa announced at its annual general meeting on Tuesday. Nhleko, who was appointed as the group’s CEO in 2002 and led a series of acquisitions across Africa and the Middle East that built MTN into a leading

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

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

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

The MTN group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said on Friday the record needed to be set straight regarding allegations of bribery relating to a mobile phone licence in Iran. “MTN has been threatened and attacked by a disappointed competitor and a disgruntled former employee,” he said in a statement

Former MTN Group president and CEO Phuthuma Nhleko has again rubbished allegations that either he or the telecommunications operator paid bribes to secure an operating licence in Iran. In a statement, Nhleko says the allegations, made by Turkcell, are without foundation

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.

Former MTN Group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko has distanced himself from a controversial mobile operating licence in Iran that put together a package of bribes, trading opportunities in sophisticated weaponry, capital investment and diplomatic influence that the Islamic Republic could not resist. “I can state quite categorically that during

Cellphone giant MTN was so desperate to win a mobile operating licence in the “virgin” territory of Iran that it allegedly put together a package of bribes, trading opportunities in sophisticated weaponry, capital investment and diplomatic influence that the Islamic Republic could not resist, write Sharda Naidoo, Craig McKune and Stefaans Brümmer