The National Prosecuting Authority may have to wait a little longer before it can get its hands on fugitive businessman Billy Rautenbach, who was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo and deported to Zimbabwe last week.
It appears that Rautenbach - a Zimbabwean citizen - was also wanted in his home country for crimes committed there, NPA spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi says.
"If he was deported to Zimbabwe to serve a sentence obviously we won't be able to take him out of Zimbabwe."
Lesufi said on Monday the NPA was waiting to hear from the Zimbabwean authorities whether Rautenbach would be jailed there or not. "If not, then we will be forced to reactivate our application for his extradition."
In March the NPA approached the Zimbabwean attorney-general asking for Rautenbach's extradition.
Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy told parliament in May that the Rautenbach case had been an embarrassment to the NPA as Rautenbach had managed to elude officials for the past six years while hiding in the DRC and Zimbabwe.
Rautenbach skipped South Africa in 1999 after a warrant for his arrest was issued for crimes he allegedly committed while he was heading the South African arm of the Hyundai Motor Corporation. He faces a large number of charges, including 326 for theft, 58 for fraud, two for corruption, two for conspiracy to commit fraud and one for reckless trading in terms of the Companies Act.
Last week the Katanga provincial government in the DRC issued a statement saying that the DRC government was making strenuous efforts to clean up its mining sector and had taken the South African charges against Rautenbach very seriously.
The businessman is a major shareholder in Central African Mining and Exploration, which owns copper mining properties in the DRC.
Rautenbach's name has become synonymous with shady business dealings not only in SA, but also in the countries where he has taken refuge.
He was implicated in a cobalt theft operation amounting to R6-billion from the DRC's state-controlled mining company Gecamines, of which he was chief executive in the late 1990s.
His close ties with President Robert Mugabe's inner circle saw him being one of the few white farmers to retain his land during the Harare government's drive to oust white farmers as part of its land reform programme. But his luck in Zimbabwe ran out after he was told last year to vacate his farm in Mashonaland West.