MTN South Africa to lay off 850 managers

Telecommunications firm MTN plans to lay off about 850 managerial staff, a move attributed to slow growth as well as tough competition in the market.

According to Reuters, despite the company’s growth over the last twenty years, it has been facing competition from Vodacom which dominates the market.

MTN’s South Africa’s revenue fell by 7 per cent to 19.2 billion rand ($1.8 billion) in the first half of this year while its margins also went down.

“We have just received a massive retrenchment notice at MTN Group -0.05%,” said Marius Croucamp, a spokesman at the Solidarity Union, which largely represents skilled workers.

A spokeswoman from MTN is to issue a statement on the matter shortly.