Brett Kebble

Who was Brett Kebble?

Roger Brett Kebble was a South African mining magnate with close links to factions in the ruling political party, the African National Congress.

Kebble was born in the mining town of Springs, on the East Rand. He matriculated from St. Andrew's School, Bloemfontein, in 1981, and then went on to the University of Cape Town, from where he graduated in 1986.

His first job was as an articled clerk for Mallinicks, now Webber Wentzel, in Cape Town in the late 1980s. He was involved in the sale by Anglo American of its JCI gold assets to Mzi Khumalo in 1995, but the partnership ended soon after.

In August 2005 he was deposed from the companies he ran, Western Areas, JCI and Randgold & Exploration, following moves by concerned investors and stakeholders. An investigation followed to determine the whereabouts of some R2-billion-worth of Randgold Resources shares, which Randgold & Exploration could not easily account for and which had either been loaned out or sold. This was followed by the suspension of JCI and Randgold & Exploration shares. Recently, Randgold & Exploration has been relisted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

In public and private, Kebble lived a flamboyant life. He had strong business and political connections with President Jacob Zuma and the ANC Youth League, and was viewed by some as a black-economic empowerment visionary.