Tom Saintfiet's work permit appeal rejected

TOM SAINTFIET'S last hopes of securing a work permit to coach the Warriors ended in disappointment when the Department of Immigration rejected the Belgian gaffer's appeal for a review of his earlier application.

Zifa had resolved to launch another bid to have the 37-year-old coach allo-wed to take charge of the Warriors by approaching the Department of Immigration to review the former Namibia coach's application.

The Zifa board had, in turn, put on hold efforts to recruit a substantive coach for the senior team until an appeal to have Saintfiet's application reviewed had been considered.

But any lingering hopes that Saint-fiet would guide the Warriors during the remainder of their 2012 African Cup of Nations campaign and the 2011 African Nations Championships were finally extinguished on Wednesday when the Department of Immigration ruled that there had not been any change on their earlier position to reject the application.

In a letter to acting Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, the office of the Principal Director of Immigra-tion Clemence Masango on Tuesday advised the soccer mother body that they would not be granting Saintfiet a work permit.

It also emerged from the Depart-ment of Immigration's letter that Zifa ' through their legal representative Ralph Maganga ' had launched a botched bid to have Saintfiet accorded a work permit.

Saintfiet had been pressing Zifa to arrange for him to join the Warriors in Mozambique for their November 17 friendly in Maputo, which the senior team won 3-1 via a Nyasha Mushekwi brace and another goal by Knowledge Musona.

It was Saintfiet's contention then that he could take charge of the Warriors on their tour of Maputo, as he did not need a work permit to coach the team outside Zimbabwe.

But with Zifa reluctant to antagonise the immigration authorities at a time when they were applying for a permit for the coach, Saintfiet's proposed assistant Madinda Ndlovu eventually took charge of the Warriors against Mozambique.

Ironically, that match was played a day before Maganga wrote to the Department of Immigration to have the authority review Saintfiet's application.

But that appeal failed to yield any positive results for Zifa and Saintfiet with the Department of Immigration also noting that the Belgian's application for a permit had failed to meet their requirements.

The Department of Immigration also noted that no proper appeal had been lodged with their office.

"We received a letter dated 18th November 2010 from Maganga and Company legal practitioners on the afore-captioned matter (temporary employment permit for Tom Julianus Maria Saintfiet).

"Please be advised that we have noted the contents of the letter and contrary to your assertions that you have noted an appeal with this office, we do confirm that there was no such an appeal.

"The documents forwarded to this office purport to be additional information on a work permit application.

"The said application had since been declined as it failed to meet our requirements. Please be advised that there are no changed circumstances therefore the refusal of temporary employment permit still stands,'' read part of the letter.

The latest response from the Depa-rtment of Immigration puts a lid on the Saintfiet, drama ' at least for now ' which had been dragging on for months and had left the Warriors virtually in limbo.

This is because Zifa could not move to make another substantive appointment for a Warriors coach without risking having two coaches in the event that the Belgian had succeeded in his bid to take charge of the senior team.

But with the second attempt to have Saintfiet granted a work permit failing, albeit, following a botched appeal, Zifa now appear to be focussing on speeding their search for a new coach altogether.

Zifa president Cuthbert Dube confirmed as much yesterday and indicated that they would now head hunt for a Warriors coach whose first major assignment would be Zimbabwe's campaign at the second CHAN tournament in Sudan.

The CHAN tournament, a competition reserved for players playing in their domestic national leagues only, will run between February 4 and 24.

After encountering problems with issues related to application for a work permit and the demands for compensation from Sainfiet's lawyers, Dube wants Zifa to shift their attention to hiring a local coach.

Zifa had indicated an alternative plan to target either Charles Mhlauri or Rahman Gumbo should their Saintfiet appeal fail to yield results.

"I can confirm that indeed the application for a work permit for Tom Saintfiet has been declined.

"So we now have to go to our Plan B which was resolved by the board so we are starting the search now and we have no choice, but to turn to the locals,'' Dube said.

The Zifa boss said his association needed to build on the mistakes they had made over the recruitment of the Warriors coach and rise from the mess that resulted in the national team having co-coaches for their Nations Cup qualifier against Cape Verde at the National Sports Stadium in October.

That encounter yielded a dour 0-0 draw with Madinda Ndlovu and Norman Mapeza taking charge of the game.

"I think it should be a lesson for us to invest in our own whom we can even send for further training courses to Europe, the Zambians have been successfully doing that,'' Dube said.