Controversial Zimbabwean businessman John Bredenkamp, who has been persistently linked to South Africa’s arms deal scandal, has been blacklisted by the European Union (EU).
Under the new extended sanctions against Robert Mugabe and one of his cronies, Bredenkamp is barred from travelling to the EU. Several of Bredenkamp’s companies have also had their assets frozen.
Also blacklisted as part of the EU’s extension of sanctions against the Mugabe regime is Muller Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach. Rautenbach is a fugitive from South Africa, wanted for fraud.
A number of questions have been raised about his mining activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rautenbach is said to be engaged in Zimbabwean-linked mining interests via Ridgepoint Overseas Development Ltd. The US authorities said that in November Rautenbach had “close ties to the regime” and was propping up Mugabe’s Zanu-PF with the proceeds of mining projects.
Bredenkamp, once one of Britain’s wealthiest men, is a former Rhodesian rugby international who has extensive business interests and properties in Britain and Zimbabwe.
Last November the US treasury blacklisted 20 companies “owned or controlled by John Bredenkamp”, who was also put on a US government blacklist as a “Mugabe regime crony” whose “financial and logistical support … has enabled Robert Mugabe to pursue policies that seriously undermine democratic processes and institutions in Zimbabwe.”
Bredenkamp, whose fortune was once estimated at up to £700-million, had his office in South Africa raided by the Scorpions in November in connection with their arms deal probe of BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer.
Bredenkamp is said to have fled Zimbabwe for Britain in 2006 after falling foul of the Mugabe regime.
But the US treasury, blacklisting Bredenkamp in November, described him as “a well-known Mugabe insider involved in various business activities, including tobacco trading, grey-market arms trading and trafficking … and diamond extraction”.
“Through a web of companies, Bredenkamp has financially propped up the regime and provided other support to a number of its high-ranking officials.”
Bredenkamp has always denied allegations of illegally supplying military goods to Zimbabwe. He recently responded to claims about his closeness to Harare by saying he had not met Mugabe for 23 years. — Additional reporting from Guardian News & Media