Zimbabwe: British Millionaire Allegedly Flees From Zimbabwe

Source from:  Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo) June 9, 2006 06/12/2006

The Zimbabwean state-owned media have reported that a British millionaire with interests in Mozambique has fled from Zimbabwe after his companies came under official investigation. Up until this week John Bredenkamp, who is supposed to be the 33rd richest man in Britain, was reputed to be a staunch ally of the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Indeed the website of the Brecon group of companies, owned by Bredenkamp, boasts that a Brecon subsidiary, Petraf, has continued to supply petroleum products to the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) after other oil suppliers shunned Zimbabwe for fear of non-payment. Bredenkamp happily shouldered the risk. "Should Petraf decline the risk, it is most probably that there would be irreversible damage to key Zimbabwean economic sectors", claimed the Brecon website. But now it seems that the Zimbabwean government can dispense with Bredenkamp's fuel. For according to the Zimbabwe "Herald" newspaper, the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate has raided companies owned by Bredenkamp "to investigate cases linked to economic crimes." It added that Bredenkamp was being investigated "on allegations of flouting exchange control regulations, tax evasion and contravening the citizenship act". It is not clear what the latter refers to - but there have been reports that, in addition to British citizenship, Bredenkamp also carries Zimbabwean, South African and Dutch passports. A spokesperson for the Brecon group denied the "Herald"'s story that Bredenkamp had made a getaway in a private plane. This source told the British "Guardian" newspaper "It's true there are investigations at the moment into a number of allegations, but it's ridiculous to say the chairman (Bredenkamp) fled the country. He is on a scheduled trip to London." A Harare businessman who deals with Brecon told the "Guardian" that Brecon was "under siege. The government is ransacking the place to find a shred of evidence to bring charges against Bredenkamp." The "Guardian"s piece also claims that Bredenkamp owns an island off the Mozambican coast. This is not strictly true, since there is no private ownership of land in Mozambique. However, a Bredenkamp company did purchase the Santa Carolina Hotel, on the island of the same name, in the Bazaruto Archipelago, off the coast of Inhambane province, in February 2004. Bredenkamp's group also manages the tourist complex on Magaruque island, in the same archipelago, and the Dona Ana hotel in Vilankulo on the mainland, and promised to take over two near derelict hotels in Beira. Bredenkamp also has tourism interests in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, tobacco interests in Zimbabwe, and controversial mining (copper and cobalt) interests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bredenkamp has an unsavoury past. He was once a close ally of the illegal Smith regime in what was then Rhodesia. At that time, he ran a tobacco-broking firm, Casalee, which became skilled at breaking UN-imposed sanction against Rhodesian tobacco exports. Harare reports also say that he helped the Smith regime evade sanction to purchase weaponry for its wars against Zimbabwean nationalists and the Front Line States. Bredenkamp has, of course, always denied doing anything illegal. As a notorious sanctions-buster he was initially unwelcome in the new Zimbabwe, following independence in 1980. But Bredenkamp switched sides, returning to Zimbabwe in 1982, and establishing friendly relations with the Mugabe government. His current troubles have been linked in some of the Zimbabwean and foreign press with allegedly backing the wrong side in a struggle within the ruling ZANU-PF party over who is to succeed Mugabe. Allegedly he backed Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose star is now fading. In the past, Bredenkamp has indignantly denied meddling in internal ZANU politics. Enditem