MTN has announced the appointment of Enzo Scarcella as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of its South African business effective 1 December 2016.

The announcement follows a host of senior level appointments from competitors by MTN over the last few months - some of which have proved to be controversial.

"Before he agreed to assume the COO role at MTN SA, Enzo was the Chief Marketing Officer of Telkom, and prior to that he served in various roles for Vodacom including as Managing Executive of Marketing," recounts MTN in its announcement barely a week after the company revealed that eMedia Investments Group Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director of Platco Digital, Maxwell Takalani Nonge would take over the reigns as MTN South Africa's new Chief Digital Officer starting this week.

New appointments into the MTN South Africa's c-suite from other reputed companies kicked off in February when former Discovery Health Chief Information Officer Benjamin Marais left to work for the mobile operator in a similar role.

Marais expressed his pride to be part of a "dynamic company that is using its technology to change lives across its footprint in Africa and the Middle East."

A few months later MTN Group announced that Vodafone Spain's Chief Technology Officer Babak Fouladi would join them as Group Executive: Technology and Information Systems.

Appointments reached their height in June 2016 when the MTN Board resolved to appoint South African national and current CEO of the European Cluster at Vodafone Group Rob Shuter as the new Group President and CEO from 2017 onwards.

Shuter's ascension to the new role took place amidst murmurings by the Black Management Forum and Black Business Council who expressed concern that the new CEO was neither a woman, black African, Indian or coloured in line with the transformation laws of MTN's home country.

MTN also announced a host of board appointments for the MTN Group and its wholly owned subsidiary MTN South Africa.

Sidestepping Vodacom

While the contentions by the black lobby groups following Shuter's appointment eventually died down, MTN had to wriggle its way out of a face off with Vodacom following a precedent-setting legal battle in February when top executive Godfrey Motsa left his Chief Officer for Consumer Business position at Vodacom to oversee MTN operations in South & East Africa (excluding South Africa) from 1 July 2016.

The exclusion of South Africa from Motsa's areas of focus after the court case appeared to be MTN's attempt to circumvent the finding of the court in February that Vodacom could enforce its legal right to require Motsa not to report for duty during his notice period, and also to serve gardening leave until the end of December 2016 in order to prevent him from immediately taking up employment with the MTN and utilising confidential and proprietary information to unfairly compete with Vodacom.