{"id":550821,"date":"2006-11-14T11:32:28","date_gmt":"2006-11-14T11:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/550821-i-didn-t-do-it-maanda-manyatshe.html"},"modified":"2006-11-14T11:32:28","modified_gmt":"2006-11-14T11:32:28","slug":"i-didn-t-do-it-maanda-manyatshe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/550821-i-didn-t-do-it-maanda-manyatshe.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I didn\u2019t do it\u2019 \u2013 Maanda Manyatshe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former MTN South Africa managing director Maanda Manyatshe says that his resignation from the cellphone company will give him time to concentrate on clearing his name. <\/font><\/p>\n

Manyatshe resigned from MTN on Monday following media reports alleging that he received favours from a contractor, which was paid R100m by the South African Post Office to revamp branches. <\/font><\/p>\n

These allegations relate to Manyatshe\u2019s tenure as CEO of the Post Office. <\/font><\/p>\n

Manyatshe said that he considered the negative impact the allegations would have on MTN, and decided that it was in the company\u2019s best interest to step down. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no pressure for me to step down. I just believe that my ability to do my job at MTN was hampered by rumours and there was a cloud hanging over me,\u201d he told Moneyweb Radio on Monday. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Mail & Guardian (M&G) broke the story saying that it had evidence that Vision Design House (VDH) – the contractor \u2013 worked on design plans for Manyatshe\u2019s Johannesburg home. <\/font><\/p>\n

This allegedly took place days before Manyatshe signed the contract between the Post Office and VDH.<\/font> <\/p>\n

The M&G also reported that the Post Office, under Manyatshe, improperly awarded a branch revamp contract to VDH, and that VDH fraudulently inflated costs.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Manyatshe attempted to stop the story from being published in the M&G through a gag order, which he now regrets doing. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cMy course on the gagging was probably wrong, because it looked like I was running away,\u201d he said. <\/font><\/p>\n

Communications expert, Clive Simpkins says that Manyatshe made two fatal mistakes: \u201cGetting a gag order on the newspaper, and stepping down. If he\u2019s clean then he should have stayed and fought.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

Manyatshe says he plans on fighting the allegations.<\/font> <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I could have continued to have authority at MTN. The company was being dragged into this mess. It\u2019s not fair to for shareholders. It\u2019s not fair for the company. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cNow I can start dealing with the matter \u2026 I didn\u2019t turnaround the Post Office by being corrupt. That process of awarding the contract went through numerous checks. It was cleared by the board. How many times must it be cleared to say that there was nothing wrong with the way the contract was awarded?\u201d he said. <\/font><\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-MTN South Africa managing director vows to fight in order to clear his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550821"}],"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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}