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renew his work permit after it expired early this year.
It was not clear why the Department of Immigration did not renew his permit. This is the second time that Mr Mpore has had a brush with immigration after his visa was cancelled in 2009 after allegedly misrepresenting facts regarding his expulsion from Cote d’Ivoire.
Apart from Mr Mpore two other Telecel workers have been struggling to get work permits. These were identified as chief financial officer Mr Alex Kiel and chief commercial officer whose name was only given as Anwar.
Mr Mpore and the two senior employees have been struggling to obtain concessions to continue working here since April.
The three are presently not reporting for duty, but sources privy to developments said the Telecel boss could be directing operations from behind the scenes.
The Telecel boss appealed to co-Home Affairs ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone after the Department of Immigration declined his applications.
Mr Mpore, who was initially evasive, later made an about turn and said he did not understand why the permits have not been granted.
He claimed Ministers Mohadi and Makone had given the thumbs-up for the Department of Immigration to issue his permit along with those of his staff.
“The co-Home Affairs ministers have directed that I be given the permits, but the matter has been caught up in the administration process, I do not know why,” he said.
He admitted he has stayed in Zimbabwe since the permits expired in April and was not clear why the permits were not granted after the ministers’ directive.
Efforts to get comments from the two Home Affairs ministers were fruitless, as their mobile phones were not reachable at the time of going to press.
But a senior immigration services official told The Herald Business on condition of anonymity that Mr Mpore’s case had not been fully resolved.
The senior official would not give finer details saying chief immigration officer Mr Clemence Masango was handling the issue.
“From the way I understand, the issue has not been completely resolved. There were appeals and counter- appeals on the matter. But you need to talk to Mr Masango who has the finer details on the matter,” said the official.
No comment could be obtained from chief immigration officer as he was reported to have travelled out of the country on business.
Mr Mpore was deported from Zimbabwe early last year for allegedly misrepresenting material facts regarding his expulsion from Cote d’Ivoire in 2009. He had his visa cancelled, but he successfully appealed against the decision.
The Abidjan government reportedly deported him over a donation that was deemed embarrassing by the then president of Cote d’Ivoire, Mr Laurent Gbagbo.
But it was not clear how Mr Mpore and the other two foreign nationals working at Telecel continued to stay in the country without valid work permits.
Sources said even if Mr Mpore successfully appealed against decisions by the Department of Immigration, as an autonomous body the department had the final say.
Mr Mpore fell out of favour with workers at Telecel Zimbabwe after he allegedly engineered the departure of a number of veteran workers, a development interpreted as a purge of locals to create vacancies for foreigners.
A number of influential positions at the firm are held by foreign nationals, but Mr Mpore claimed these required specialist skills not available locally.
Online Reporter