In January this year, the European Union (EU) decided to put a few new names to their list of people in Zimbabwe imposed with sanctions from the union. One of them was Muller Conrad Rautenbach, more known as Billy Rautenbach, and father of the current WRC driver Conrad Rautenbach (actually Billy Rautenbach took part in some rallies himself in the 80′s). The sanction list was initially created in 2002, intended to weaken the Mugabe regime and his Zanu-PF party by travel bans and freezing economic resources of members and financers of the regime. In a statement, EU says that the measures against the people on their list is the result of “the break down of the rule of law and human rights abuses”.

A similar list is maintained in the US by the US Department of the Treasury, a list to which Billy Rautenbach was added in November 2008. US Treasure states that Rautenbach “has provided support to senior regime officials during Zimbabwe’s intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also provided logistical support for large-scale mining projects in Zimbabwe that benefit a small number of corrupt officials there”. The authority further says that “The Mugabe regime continues to resist the call of the Zimbabwean people to loosen its corrupt and violent hold on power”.

So, what’s behind all this?

After some basic research you can find out that Billy Rautenbach lived in South Africa until the end of the 90′s. He was a quite successful businessman running the Hyundai dealer, having exclusive deals for selling Volvo and Saab in sub-Sahara and the continent’s biggest transportation company – Wheels of Africa. He was also involved in the selling of Jas-Gripen, a Swedish made military jet plane, to the South African government. But something went wrong, Hyundai went into trouble – and so did Rautenbach. He got accused for a list of different crimes, got into the list of 20 most wanted criminals in South Africa and was investigated for briberies – but seemed to have good cover. In one case Billy Rautenbach’s lawyer met up with Thabo Mbeki’s (South African president) Commissioner of Police and gave him 40 000 USD to have the corruption charges against Rautenbach dropped – an offer the comissioner accepted. Mbeki also sacked the National Prosecution Authority boss and arrested a policeman investigating the case with the commissioner’s bribe on charges of “perverting the course of justice to protect Billy Rautenbach against investigations.

However, reading on UNHCR’s website Refworld – intended as a tool for refugee decision support – you can see that Rautenbach gave up and fled South Africa to a farm outside Harare (in Zimbabwe) in 1999, because of the accusations against him, including theft, bribery and fraud. He was described in 2002 by the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Kongo as a man “whose personal and professional integrity is doubtful”, after a two years as manager of Congo’s state-owned mining company, Gecamines – appointed as a thank for Zimbabwe’s military support going into the Second Congo War. However, in 2000 Rautenbach was replaced in the role as managing director – after a report that a network of prominent people had transferred assets worth at least 5 billion USD from the state-mining company to private companies. Billy Rautenbach was named as one of the plunderers in the report, but he denied and made a statement that the accusations were totally unfounded. No matter what, Billy Rautenbach have been pronounced persona non grata (not wanted person) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

What does this have to do with Conrad Rautenbach’s WRC drive?

I don’t know who’s paying for Conrad Rautenbach’s WRC drive, but I think it’s easy to suspect that the money going into Citroen from him doesn’t have the brightest history. I’ve not seen any major sponsors behind his drive, and a simple guess is that money from his fathers empire pay for his drive. To know what’s true and what’s false regarding Billy Rautenbach is really hard, but it’s easy to see that his business is really dubious. His involvement in war’s and corruption seems quite evident and considering he’s on both EU’s and US Treasure’s lists of sanctions – it’s certain that he even now may have a role as financer for the undemocratic regime in Zimbabwe.

All this makes me suspect that the money backing Conrad Rautenbach’s WRC operation has been indirectly stolen from the African people by corrupted transfers initiated by undemocratic forces. And worst of all it makes me suspect that Conrad’s financer have also been financing parts of the worst war in modern African history, killing 5.4 million people. I don’t judge Conrad Rautenbach – he is just his father’s son and can’t do much about it – and I don’t even know if his father really is paying the drive. But if Citroen has any interest in human rights, my opinion is that Citroen should deeply investigate where the money that pays Conrad’s WRC season comes from and verify that those money have other sources than Conrad’s father’s dubious business. Just suspicions regarding this type of things is a shame to the championship and the sport.

Here is the list of people imposed by EU’s sanctions against Zimbabwe:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:023:0043:0059:EN:PDF

Here is US Treasury’s summary of the sanctions concerning Zimbabwe:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/zimbabwe/zimb.shtml

If you want to read more on the subject, here are more information sources:

UNHCR RefWorld – Robert Mugabe’s money men
Position of the European Union on sanctions against Zimbabwe
European Parliament resolution on human rights in Zimbabwe
Daily Telegraph – Business and morality – Is Phil Edmonds right to trade with Robert Mugabe?
SW Radio Africa – The web of corrupt Practice and Politics in the region
AfDevInfo on Billy Rautenbach
MNET – Crook or crucified
Wikipedia, Second Congo War