MTN Group says it will ‘consider’ the appointment of its chairman\u00a0Cyril Ramaphosa, who was on Tuesday (18 December) elected as the ANC\u2019s new deputy president, ‘in due course’.<\/p>\n
Questions\u00a0have been raised about how the new deputy president will juggle a life of politics, \u00a0with his many business interests and standings.<\/p>\n
“The MTN Group Board will consider these latest developments, in consultation with the chairman, in due course”, said Paul Norman, MTN Group chief \u00a0HR and corporate affairs officer.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa\u00a0received a large majority of the votes at 3,018 versus those of his\u00a0opponents, namely fellow businessmen, Tokyo Sexwale (463) and Mathews Phosa (470).<\/p>\n
The businessman\u00a0is set to take over from current deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who was in turn defeated by Jacob Zuma for the position of\u00a0ANC president.<\/p>\n
Zuma won 2,983 votes while Motlanthe received 991 votes. A total of 3,977 votes were cast.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg reported\u00a0Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), as saying:\u00a0\u201cOur official position\u201d is he should relinquish all business posts.<\/p>\n
He told journalists that members of the ANC \u201cleadership mustn\u2019t be finding themselves in a contradictory situation of a conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0the McDonald\u2019s Corp franchise in South Africa.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Last month\u00a0Ramaphosa was embroiled in controversy over an alleged conflict of interest present in his investment company, Shanduka\u2019s acquisition of a \u201cminority stake\u201d in MTN Nigeria.<\/p>\n
On 28 November,\u00a0Shanduka Group<\/a>, a company founded and chaired Ramaphosa, paid $335 million for a stake in MTN\u2019s Nigerian business.<\/p>\n The acquisition of the \u201cminority stake\u201d had been purchased through Shanduka Telecommunication (Mauritius), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Shanduka group.<\/p>\n Sitting as chairman for both parties in the transaction \u2013 MTN Group and Shanduka group \u2013 Ramaphosa was viewed as\u00a0possessing\u00a0an\u00a0alleged\u00a0conflict of interest, bringing the transaction into question.<\/p>\n MTN chairman seeks ANC deputy post<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Ramaphosa\u2019s Shanduka claims stake in MTN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Rhamaposa slammed for Shanduka, MTN conflict<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nRelated articles<\/strong><\/h3>\n