Two arrested for alleged fraud

Two people were arrested for attempting to extort money from suspended MTN boss Robert Madzonga in Sandton, Gauteng police said on Sunday.

 

"Two suspects, aged 35 and 37, were arrested at the Maslow hotel on Friday evening," Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said.

 

Dlamini said Madzonga told police that two people posing as members of the Hawks and the SA Police Service wanted R300,000 from him and in exchange they would "assist" him with an internal investigation against him, Dlamini said.

 

The two would appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on Monday on fraud charges.

 

The City Press newspaper reported that a man and a woman met Madzonga last month and demanded R300,000 to make the current investigations by cellphone network MTN and another by the Hawks into the ICT Indaba sponsorship go away.

 

MTN was quoted in the newspaper saying it "cannot comment on a matter that is before the police. MTN's investigation against Mr Madzonga will be concluded shortly. MTN has not pressed charges against him."

 

On August 30 the labour court upheld MTN's decision to suspend the corporate services executive after he challenged it.

 

It was reported on August 19 that Madzonga was suspended allegedly over his role in the diversion of sponsorship funds for the ICT indaba.

 

Madzonga was accused of receiving some of the money paid to former communications minister Dina Pule's boyfriend Phosa Mngqibisa, as a management fee for the indaba last year.

 

MTN confirmed the suspension at the time but gave no details, saying it was "not in a position to divulge the nature of these internal matters...".

 

Pule was suspended by Parliament for the scandal that saw her boyfriend benefit from state funding. Speaker Max Sisulu told Pule she betrayed her oath of office and brought Parliament into disrepute.

Pule was sacked from her portfolio in a Cabinet reshuffle in July.

 

-Sapa