A BMW dealership with links to three MTN executives has been allowed onto its head office property to sell cars, reports City Press.
Citing a source at MTN as its basis for information, the paper says Sea Star Motors has been allowed onto the site several times in the last three years, despite the "conflict of interest".
City Press reports Sea Star has among its directors MTN CEO and president Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN SA CEO Zunaid Bulbulia and Paul Norman, chief of human resources and corporate affairs. It adds MTN said this week that Bulbulia was no longer one of its directors.
The cellphone company, Africa's largest, reportedly told the paper that Sea Star was invited to its offices as part of a wellness day in 2010. The invitation was through a Sanlam Healthcare Management subsidiary, Eternity Health, it reports.
However, the source claims this was not the case, while Sanlam could not confirm whether the dealership was present as part of the wellness day, the paper reports.
In response to the paper's query, MTN said it was "normal" for car dealerships to showcase cars on tarmac outside its building, which is public property. It said that no cars from Sea Star were present, only pamphlets, and no directors were involved in organising the event, the paper reports.
"In fact, on being alerted to their [Sea Star's] presence, one of the company's directors placed a call to the dealership to express concern about how their participation could have been perceived," the paper quotes MTN as saying.
The source told the paper that the alleged conflict of interest was discussed in e-mails between Dabengwa and Bulbulia. MTN did not comment on this claim, the report states.
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