Embattled former Safaricom Director of Consumer Business Unit will not take up her new role in Tanzania as the Managing Director Vodacom after Tanzanian government denied her a work permit on grounds that there are Tanzanians who can do the job.
Ms Mulinge was to take over from the outgoing MD Ian Ferrao, a UK nationality.
She will now remain at Safaricom with a new title, Director of Special Projects, which was announced to staffers through a memo, in which she will commence duties on October 1.
“In this role, she will report directly to me and will be responsible for spearheading our commercial revival and help us deliver our strategy and transform Safaricom into a business that is fit for the future,” said Mr Bob Collymore through the memo to staffers.
Read: Vodacom Tanzania Gets New MD As Tanzanians Refuse To Approve Sylvia Mulinge’s Appointment
Ms Mulinge will reportedly work to restore Safaricom’s wearing-out customer trust and loyalty.
This comes after Vodacom resorted to appointing a new Managing Director in her place, Hisham Hendi, after several months of waiting for Ms Mulinge’s work permit to be authorised by the government which has remained adamant despite several intervention measures from lobbyists.
Word has it that Mulinge had not satisfied all the requirements for a work permit from Tanzania following several cases of graft allegations.
Ms Mulinge has been the centre of attention in the recent past, in what seems to be underhand dealings at the country’s biggest telco. Before she became head of consumer business at Safaricom, word has it that he colluded with cartels to cook a scandal that saw her predecessor Peter Arina unceremoniously ousted.
Later, she was accused of killing a minor through a high-speed road crash in the slums of Kibera adjacent to the Southern bypass in Nairobi. On that fateful day, Mulinge was behind the wheel of the Prado KBU 483M, registered to Safaricom Ltd. Reports have it that the family of the minor has never received justice.
Read: Tanzania Government is Refusing to Issue Work Permit to Safaricom’s Sylvia Mulinge
She was also adversely implicated in a scandal that involved payments of more than Ksh646 million to Fibre Space from Safaricom.
According to reports, Fibre Space Ltd was single sourced by Safaricom to roll out a system for electronic payments in the transport sector. This is the project known as the cashless payment system for matatus in Nairobi.
Auditing company KPMG established that there was no request for proposal (RFP) issued nor vendor selection (tendering process) done for this partnership. During this same period, Fibre Space was having discussions with Ms Mulinge, the then head of the business unit at Safaricom.
Accountability documents related to this contract are said to have disappeared after payments were made to Fibre Space.
Such scandals could be the hindrance to Ms Mulinge getting a work permit in the Magufuli-led country. The President, John Pombe Magufuli has been nicknamed ‘the bulldozer’ for his style of leadership, fighting graft head-on.
Sylvia Mulinge joined Safaricom in 2006 from Unilever where she worked as brand manager.
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