MTN's suspended chief corporate services officer Robert Madzonga has hit out at his employer for "spying" on him, and is challenging his suspension.
This is according to a City Press report, which says the senior manager has taken legal action against the operator. Madzonga, says the Sunday newspaper, has launched an urgent Labour Court challenge to his suspension; opened a defamation case against Lily Zondo, MTN SA's GM of business risk; registered a grievance at company level against Zondo and MTN group chief strategy officer Karel Pienaar; and accused the company of spying on him.
Madzonga was suspended to allow for the completion of a preliminary investigation into the suspicion that he paid his "lawyer friends" excessive rates.
The report cites court papers in which Madzonga says he received a call from Sunday Times journalists who wanted to meet to discuss the ICT Indaba, the event that sparked the probe into misconduct on the part of former communications minister Dina Pule.
When he agreed to meet, he immediately received a call from Zondo warning him not to attend the meeting. This, says the City Press, led Madzonga to draw the conclusion that his phone had been tapped, as this is the only way Zondo could have known about the meeting.
Madzonga's grievance and defamation cases against Zondo relate to allegations she allegedly made about him with regard to the ICT Indaba, which he was accused of benefitting financially from.
Sources "close to the investigation" apparently told the City Press this week that internal audits at MTN had uncovered more suspicious payments to other law firms.
Madzonga denies he has done anything wrong.
MTN has declined to comment on the issue, saying it would be "imprudent of us to divulge further details a this stage of the process or comment on media speculation".
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