Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
18 July 2024 | 19:53 CAT

Image/ Open Secrets, Twitter

The organisation Open Secrets revealed in its latest investigation that Christoph Huber, a Swiss national living in Cape Town, is suspected of having made millions from the war in the DRC. He is an elusive man, with just two photographs of him online. Journalists have for years speculated that the elusive businessman lives in South Africa.

Speaking to Radio Islam International, the lead investigator on this story, Ra’eesa Pather, informs those investigations started earlier this year; However, Huber has been on the radar for quite some time.

“We have known for some time that Huber has been involved in suspected war crimes in the DRC as numerous human rights organisations have alleged. However, this year has raised more awareness that Huber might be living in South Africa which led us to investigate and confirm whether he is here and whether he owns assets in the country,” says Pather.

Huber has been a person of interest for human rights advocates since the 1990s. Several groups, including a United Nations panel of experts, Global Witness, United States law firm Amsterdam & Partners, Trial International and Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), have accused him of illicit exploitation of minerals in the east of the DRC. Six million Congolese people have been killed since 1996 in wars fuelled by the scramble for the country’s minerals.

The Swiss attorney general’s office has not said whether or not Huber will be indicted.

His lawyers also threatened legal action against Open Secrets to halt the publication of their findings, including a threat to request a punitive cost order from the high court in Cape Town.

The complaint before Swiss authorities alleges that Huber illegally smuggled minerals out of the eastern DRC between 1998 and 2003 during the Second Congo War. He bought his first Somerset West home during this period, but, through his lawyers, he denies any of his properties have any relevance to the allegations of criminality against him.

Huber has a South African ID number and owns four properties in the Western Cape province. The title deeds, which Open Secrets reviewed, confirm he co-owns the properties with his wife.

In a luxury gated community in the affluent Somerset West area of Cape Town is Huber’s most expensive property in the country: a home bought in May 2018 for R16 million. At the time, the couple already owned another five minutes away: a house perched on a hill with panoramic views bought in 2002 for R3.1 million. They also own property in Stellenbosch and Struisbaai, a small coastal town around 200km from Cape Town. The four properties are worth at least R25.7 million ($ 1.4 million) based on their purchase prices alone.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round Up with Muallimah Annisa Essack and Ra’eesa Pather here.