One week after the resignation of the chief executive officer of its South Africa operations, Africa’s leading mobile operator with operations also in Asia and the Middle East, MTN, has announced the appointment of Mteto Nyati as new Chief Executive Officer to succeed Mr. Ahmad Farroukh who resigned on July 6. Nyati’s appointment is effective 13 July 2015.
Nyati is coming at a time fears are rife MTN may be considering shedding load as workers continue on an industrial action unabated.
With no end in sight to the strike action embarked upon by members of staff of MTN South Africa, the company is said to be considering pruning down the number of its workforce to be able to meet the worker’s demands. About 2000 workers of the company have remained adamant on calling off the strike, which has now lasted for eight weeks.
According to local newspaper Business Report, the company, which said last week it had no plans to concede to worker demands to end the action, would instead opt to shed jobs, after the strike showed it could do without some of its workforce.
Workers are seeking a 10 per cent increase in wages and 12 per cent in bonuses, but the strike is reportedly beginning to lose ground after the country’s Communications Workers Union (CWU) called off action in the Kwazulu-Natal province, which has seen the most incidents of violence.
Earlier this year, the company was reported to have cut 578 positions, and workers participating in the on-going strike have already lost out on two months wages. Entry level staff reportedly rejected an eight per cent pay increase offer earlier this month.
Industrial action over jobs is commonplace across South Africa, where unemployment stands at over 25 per cent. South Africa is MTN’s second largest market after Nigeria, with 22.4 million connections and a 32 per cent market share.
Nyati, a seasoned ICT executive and business leader, joined MTN as Group Chief Enterprise Officer in October last year. “He brings extensive knowledge of the local ICT market, and is passionate about people and customer service. We believe the appointment of a leader of Nyati’s calibre and competencies will greatly enhance our efforts to strengthen the confidence of our customers and reinvigorate our people,” says Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN Group President and CEO.
According to a statement from the Group, Nyati in his role as Group Chief Enterprise Officer, had been responsible for leveraging the Group’s integrated ICT offerings and leading the group-wide enterprise and ICT strategy to enhance MTN’s position in the enterprise segment. Nyati has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Natal. In 2004, he was named a Yale University World Fellow.