The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has overturned a previous high court judgement for MTN, and will allow a case brought by Iran’s Turkcell against MTN to be heard in South Africa.
The judgement is the latest move in a 2013 high court case brought against MTN by Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri its wholly owned subsidiary, East Asian Consortium.
The parties were seeking substantial damages from MTN relating to allegations of impropriety in the award of the first private mobile telecommunications licence in Iran.
The MTN board had previously, in 2012, appointed an independent special committee to investigate the allegations, which had exonerated MTN.
The High Court had set aside Turkcell’s 2013 case against MTN on the basis that South African courts did not have jurisdiction, which judgement Turkcell appealed.
Now, the SCA has handed down a judgement that upholds aspects of the appeal lodged by Turkcell, deciding that South African courts do have jurisdiction. It does, however, uphold the High Court ruling
that Iranian law is applicable to key aspects of the dispute.
MTN intends to approach the Constitutional Court to appeal this decision.