JOHANNESBURG – There was drama in the court as Emmerson Mnangagwa’s business frontman Billy Rautenbach got an unpleasant surprise when he was served with civil litigation papers

Billy Rautenbach was at the High Court in Johannesburg to testify in the Jackie Selebi trail on Thursday.

Before proceedings began in the former South African police commissioner’s corruption case, lawyers arrived at courtroom 4B saying they wanted to serve Rautenbach with legal papers.

The state reacted angrily, telling the lawyers that Rautenbach was set to testify in the case.

After Rautenbach, dressed in a grey suit, finished his testimony, court adjourned for tea. While the lawyers and curious journalists waited outside courtroom 4B, Rautenbach went into a side room.

After some negotiation, his spokeswoman told journalists he had been served with unrelated civil litigation.

“Mr Rautenbach has just been served civil litigation related to the affairs of the Hyundai group,” Madelain Roscher said.

“There is no link between the criminal [now resolved fraud] case and the civil case.”

Ex-Hyundai boss and mining magnate, Rautenbach recently reached a R40 million plea agreement with the authorities on 326 charges of fraud. He fled South Africa in 1999 when his Botswana-based Hyundai Motor Distributors collapsed.

Rautenbach is also a major shareholder in the Central African Mining and Exploration Company, CAMEC, a company linked to Zimbabwe Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Earlier, while on the stand, Rautenbach testified of a meeting in Johannesburg between his lawyer James Tidmarsh, convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti and Selebi about investigations against Rautenbach.

Agliotti has testified that Rautenbach paid him US$100,000 (about R743,500) as an alleged bribe for Selebi to assist him with his run-ins with the law.

At the time, Agliotti asked for a R1 million fee for access to Selebi. Rautenbach said he felt this was exorbitant and declined, the court heard.

“The meeting took place on 19 April, 2005. After the meeting, Tidmarsh came to the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] where I was. He came to greet me and said he met the commissioner of police and they discussed my case.

“[Tidmarsh told me that] obviously Agliotti had the contacts and maybe this is a way of taking this thing forward.”

Rautenbach said he then made a payment of US$100,000 to Agliotti in an airport parking lot.

“We believed he had the necessary contact to get my case resolved. He was obviously connected.”

Rautenbach testified that at one stage his lawyer James Ramsey met with officials of former prosecutions head Bulelani Ncguka’s office, but the issues discussed did not relate to his tax or Hyundai issues.

“His people were trying to gather intelligence about Zimbabwe and the DRC.”

He said some of this was about mining, but also related to the bank accounts of officials and who was behind the companies.

Allegations Ncguka tried to obtain a bribe from him were untrue.

“There was no bribe whatsoever,” he said.

Earlier as Rautenbach sat waiting to testify, he turned and nodded at Selebi.

Also on the witness stand on Thursday was Superintendent Adriaan Jacobus Nel who was involved in covert police operations along with police informer Paul Stemmet.

He testified that Stemmet asked for Agliotti to share reward money he got for providing information leading to a drug bust.

Court adjourned until Friday after prosecutor Gerrie Nel said the next two witnesses were unwilling, and he needed time to discuss the matter with their legal teams.

Selebi is being tried on a count of corruption and another of defeating the ends of justice in connection with at least R1.2 million he allegedly received from Agliotti, Rautenbach and others in return for favours.

IOL