MTN mum on Ramaphosa’s future
MTN Group says it will ‘consider’ the appointment of its chairman Cyril Ramaphosa, who was on Tuesday (18 December) elected as the ANC’s new deputy president, ‘in due course’.
Questions have been raised about how the new deputy president will juggle a life of politics, with his many business interests and standings.
“The MTN Group Board will consider these latest developments, in consultation with the chairman, in due course”, said Paul Norman, MTN Group chief HR and corporate affairs officer.
Ramaphosa received a large majority of the votes at 3,018 versus those of his opponents, namely fellow businessmen, Tokyo Sexwale (463) and Mathews Phosa (470).
The businessman is set to take over from current deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who was in turn defeated by Jacob Zuma for the position of ANC president.
Zuma won 2,983 votes while Motlanthe received 991 votes. A total of 3,977 votes were cast.
Bloomberg reported Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), as saying: “Our official position” is he should relinquish all business posts.
He told journalists that members of the ANC “leadership mustn’t be finding themselves in a contradictory situation of a conflict of interest.”
Earlier this year, Forbes ranked Ramaphosa as the 36th richest man in Africa, with a fortune of $275 million, accumulated mostly from mining operations. He also owns the McDonald’s Corp franchise in South Africa.
Ramaphosa is independent non-executive director and chairman of the mobile operator, and is also chairman of Bidvest Group. He also sits on the board of brewer, SAB Miller and Standard Bank Group.
Last month Ramaphosa was embroiled in controversy over an alleged conflict of interest present in his investment company, Shanduka’s acquisition of a “minority stake” in MTN Nigeria.
On 28 November, Shanduka Group, a company founded and chaired Ramaphosa, paid $335 million for a stake in MTN’s Nigerian business.
The acquisition of the “minority stake” had been purchased through Shanduka Telecommunication (Mauritius), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Shanduka group.
Sitting as chairman for both parties in the transaction – MTN Group and Shanduka group – Ramaphosa was viewed as possessing an alleged conflict of interest, bringing the transaction into question.
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