{"id":52173,"date":"2012-06-08T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T15:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=52173"},"modified":"2012-06-11T10:13:33","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T08:13:33","slug":"mtn-ceo-sets-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/52173-mtn-ceo-sets-the-record-straight.html","title":{"rendered":"MTN CEO sets the record straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MTN<\/a> group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa<\/a> said on Friday the record needed to be set straight regarding allegations of bribery relating to a mobile phone licence in Iran.<\/p>\n

“MTN has been threatened and attacked by a disappointed competitor and a disgruntled former employee,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Dabengwa said MTN had come under increasing public scrutiny after attacks by opponents to its non-controlling 49 percent stake in Irancell.<\/p>\n

Claims made by Turkcell in US proceedings had no legal merit and no place in a US court.<\/p>\n

“The former employee who is the source of the claims has been shown through the evidence in his deposition not to be a credible witness,” Dabengwa said.<\/p>\n

“He is being paid by Turkcell for his role in their legal claims, and has admitted that he is motivated by a grudge against MTN’s former management.”<\/p>\n

He said in contrast to Turkcell’s public statements, the former employee’s evidence was significantly discredited in his recent deposition as largely based on speculation, innuendo and hearsay.<\/p>\n

Former MTN group CEO Phuthuma Nhleko<\/a> also denied allegations of bribery on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“No bribes were approved or paid with my consent, or the consent of the MTN Group during my tenure as CEO of MTN,” Nhleko said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“The allegations now made by Turkcell are being made inexplicably for the first time in almost seven years after the licence was issued in Iran.”<\/p>\n

Nhleko was the group’s CEO and was president of the MTN group of companies for almost 10 years, until March 2011.<\/p>\n

Turkcell filed a US4.2 billion (about R35.5bn) civil claim in March, in which it accused MTN of bribing Iranians and South Africans to get the licence, which was originally awarded to Turkcell.<\/p>\n

Hawks’ spokesman McIntosh Polela<\/a> confirmed on Tuesday that the elite police unit was looking into the claims.<\/p>\n

“There are allegations. We first did an assessment [to test] the strength of the allegations. After this we decided to do a follow-up investigation,” he said.<\/p>\n

Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier said earlier allegations against a high-ranking former MTN executive had emerged.<\/p>\n

The executive, who was named by Maynier in his statement, allegedly engaged in “unprecedented corrupt acts” in order to win the mobile operating licence in Iran.<\/p>\n

Maynier claimed: “A payment of US400,000 (about R3.38m) was made by MTN to Iran’s former deputy foreign minister Javid Ghorbanoghli for assistance in securing the mobile operating licence.”<\/p>\n

Maynier said MTN also allegedly made a payment of US200,000 (about R1.69m) to a South African diplomat — who was also named — to assist with the delivery of a pro-Iran position at the International Atomic Energy Agency.<\/p>\n

“MTN financed a trip by Iran’s nuclear negotiation chief Hassan Rowhani to meet former President Thabo Mbeki<\/a>, to discuss South Africa’s position on Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency<\/a>,” Maynier charged.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fitch affirms MTN rating, cautions Turkcell threat<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Nhleko wades back into Irancell case<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Hawks swoop in on MTN<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN denies intimidating former employee<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turkcell will struggle to bring MTN case in US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN, The Fish, and Project Snooker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MTN group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said on Friday the record needed to be set straight regarding allegations of bribery <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":47452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[36,42,1427,8797],"class_list":["post-52173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-active","tag-mtn","tag-sifiso-dabengwa","tag-turkcell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52255,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52173\/revisions\/52255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}