Cricketer accused of financing Mugabe

Phil Edmonds (pictured in 1987), the former England test cricketer, has been accused of indirectly providing economic support to the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, who on Sunday dropped out of the run-off for the presidential elections, claim that the former spin-bowler, who is the chairman of the AIM-listed Central African Mineral and Exploration Company (CAMEC), bought a platinum mining business for £120m in the country only two months ago, a move that breaches sanctions imposed on the country by the EU and America. It also believes that the money CAMEC paid for the mining licences could have ended up in the pockets of senior members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party.

The Movement for Democratic Change is not alone in its suspicions about Edmonds, who was born in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since 1980). British politicians and shareholders in CAMEC have expressed concern that one of the company's principal backers, Muller Conrad 'Billy' Rautenbach, is in cahoots with Mugabe. True or not, Rautebach, who used to manage Mugabe's missing concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, certainly seems to be earning his keep: last year, he was paid £19.2m for "services and assets" by Edmonds's company.