South Africa’s Black Management Forum on Wednesday in Johannesburg expressed displeasure over the appointment of Rob Shuter, a white South African, as MTN Group’s new CEO.
The forum, which lobbies for black rights, criticised the mobile phone operator’s decision, saying it was retrogressive to plan for the exclusion of blacks in corporate boardrooms in South Africa.
It said Shuter was named as the replacement for Sifiso Dabengwa, a black executive, who resigned last November after Nigeria imposed a fine on MTN for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards.
The BMF President, Mncane Mthunzi, said there was a general unwillingness for transformation at top management level, which has resulted in the decline in the number of black South African CEOs.
Mthunzi said: “These companies are owned by the public and yet they don’t reflect the demographics of our society.”
Mthunzi said Shuter, who has a background in risk management, would be joining MTN from rival mobile operator, Vodafone, where he is currently head of Vodafone Europe.
He said Nhleko would revert to his role as non-executive chairman when Shuter starts as CEO, which is expected to be by July next year at the latest.
A report quoting MTN spokesman, Chris Maroleng, said the company would respond later with a statement.
Founded with the government’s help after the end of apartheid in 1994, MTN has been touted as one of South Africa’s biggest corporate success stories with operations in more than 20 countries in the Middle East and Africa.
MTN Executive, Phuthuma Nhleko, also black, was appointed interim executive chairman following Dabengwa’s resignation, with an eye to renegotiating the Nigerian fine, which was initially set at $5.2 billion.
In the end, MTN agreed this month to pay a fine of $1.2 billion and to list its local business on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Report says MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria, with 62 million subscribers.
dpa/NAN.
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