{"id":12281,"date":"2012-07-11T00:26:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T22:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/s-africa-to-investigate-ambassador-on-mtn-case\/"},"modified":"2012-07-11T00:26:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T22:26:49","slug":"s-africa-to-investigate-ambassador-on-mtn-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-to-investigate-ambassador-on-mtn-case\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa to investigate ambassador on MTN case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">CAPE TOWN, July 10<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s foreign<br \/>\nministry is investigating allegations a former ambassador to<br \/>\nTehran took a $200,000 bribe to help MTN Group win a<br \/>\nmobile licence in Iran, according to government documents<br \/>\nreleased on Tuesday.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said in a response<br \/>\nto written parliamentary questions that her department had<br \/>\nstarted an investigation into the allegations against Yusuf<br \/>\nSaloojee, currently ambassador to Oman.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Johannesburg-based MTN is being sued by Turkish rival<br \/>\nTurkcell for $4.2 billion. The Turkish company<br \/>\nalleges MTN bribed Saloojee and used other underhanded methods<br \/>\nto win a licence over Turkcell in 2005.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>MTN has denied the charges and called Turkcell&#8217;s demands<br \/>\n&#8220;extortionate&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Saloojee has previously not responded to Reuters requests<br \/>\nfor comment on the case, but has denied the allegations in<br \/>\nstatements published by South African media.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>No one was immediately available for comment at the South<br \/>\nAfrican embassy in Oman.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Shadow minister of defence David Maynier from the opposition<br \/>\nDemocratic Alliance (DA) party, who submitted the questions to<br \/>\nthe foreign minister, said the government had previously argued<br \/>\nthat an investigation was unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not clear why the department has done an about turn,<br \/>\nbut the institution of this investigation is nevertheless a<br \/>\nwelcome development,&#8221; he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is imperative that the results of the investigation be<br \/>\nmade public as soon as possible.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE TOWN, July 10 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s foreign ministry is investigating allegations a former ambassador to Tehran took a $200,000 bribe to help MTN Group win a mobile licence in Iran, according to government documents released on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said in a response to written parliamentary questions that her department had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}