President Yoweri Museveni has pardoned the deported MTN Uganda Chief Executive Officer Wim Vanhelleputte and ordered the Immigration Department to remove him from the Stop List.
Vanhelleputte will be cleared through the VIP lounge. Museveni pardoned Vanhelleputte after holding discussions with top officials of MTN Group.
Mr Vanhelleputte, who was deported in February over allegations of undermining state security, is expected back in Uganda Thursday (today) aboard a South African Airways flight.
According to the clearance letter from Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Jeje Odongo President Museveni has made a consideration and cleared Mr. Vanhelleputte.
“As you may be aware …the President of the Republic of Uganda pardoned the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda Mr Vanhelleputte Wim Joris J, holder of a Belgium PPT No.EP336746. He is now scheduled to travel back to Uganda tomorrow Thursday 30th May 2019 (today) at 1430hrs aboard South African Airways SA 160,” reads the letter dated May 29, stamped “Very Urgent”
He was deported together with three other senior employees of the telecommunications company for allegedly compromising National Security using their positions at the company. They included the chief marketing officer, Olivier Prentout, the mobile money general manager Elsa Mussolini and Annie Tabura who was the general manager for sales and distribution at MTN Uganda.
Other staff members were investigated as part of a classified investigation and recorded statements with the Special Investigations Department. The investigations began in July 2018 after the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) raided their call centre in Mutundwe, a Kampala suburb and confiscated the company servers.
The fate of this other deportees was not immediately established.
According to a source, the government at the time had received intelligence information relating to espionage, tax evasion and money laundering.
Gordian Kyomukama, the chief technology officer, has been acting as the chief executive officer following the deportation of Vanhelleputte.
According to Eagle Online, MTN-Uganda board chairman Charles Mbire said: “I thank President Museveni for the consideration to bring him back. Silence is not a weakness but it is the weapon because in the end, you can never hide two things on the earth and that is the sun and the truth because at the end they finally come out” Mbire said as quoted by Eagle Online.
The surprise return of Mr Vanhelleputte is likely to put security chiefs on the spot, after separate investigations acquitted him.
His removal from the Stop List marks a dramatic reset of relations between Kampala and the South African telecoms giant, whose top leadership had been accused of spying for Rwanda.
Progress has also been made towards resolution of a separate dispute over licence fees, with President Museveni reportedly directing the communications regulator Uganda Communications Commission and the Finance Ministry to work out a uniform formula for determining licence fees in the sector, ahead of the renewal of MTN Uganda and market rival Airtel’s licence applications, which have been pending since late 2018.
Mr Vanhelleputte is expected to take back his post at MTN Uganda, which has not been filled.
