MTN anticipates that a lawsuit filed against it in the US by Turkish operator Turkcell will be sorted out by late this year or early next year.
In March, Turkcell filed a $4.2 billion lawsuit against MTN in the US district court in Washington.
Turkcell's case is steeped in allegations of corruption on the part of MTN in acquiring the second GSM licence in Iran in 2005. MTN has a 49% stake in Iran's second cellphone operator, Irancell.
Turkcell has accused MTN of bribing both South African and Iranian officials, as well as soliciting the provision of weapons by SA to Iran, to acquire the permit. But MTN has repeatedly denied the claims, calling them “scurrilous and untrue” and said Turkcell is an “aggrieved competitor”.
Last month, MTN moved to dismiss the case on the basis that it lacks legal merit, which has been opposed by Turkcell. MTN's response is due on 15 August and the group expects the court will decide the motion in late 2012 or early 2013.
CEO and president Sifiso Dabengwa, speaking at a media roundtable today following the group's interim presentation, says the allegations have not been tested in a court of law and Turkcell has lost two previous bids to secure the licence. He questions why a US court should be involved in a matter that deals with a South African company, a Turkish operation, and an Iranian licence.
Turkcell lost the licence through failing to comply with its conditions, says Dabengwa. He says the lawsuit is “not worth the paper it's written on”.
In February, the board appointed a committee to investigate the allegations made by Turkcell, which is chaired by an independent jurist, Lord Leonard Hoffmann.
Dabengwa says he does not have any insight into the commission's work, but that it is in process and has taken a while as it is challenging to meet with people who no longer work at MTN or live in SA.
If any of the former staff members allegedly involved in the bribery are found guilty, MTN would have no choice but to press criminal charges, says Dabengwa. “MTN is definitely not a corrupt company.”
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation has suspended SA's former ambassador to Iran, Yusuf Saloojee, and launched an investigation into allegations that he accepted $200 000 in bribes from MTN to swing the bid for a GSM licence in Iran in its favour.
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