2005-10-04,+Bruce+on+Kebble,+Business+Day


 * Business Day, Johannesburg, 03 October 2005**

= The Thick End of the Wedge (extract) =


 * Peter Bruce (Editor)**

LIKE everyone else, I was stunned by Brett Kebble’s murder. I have no doubt he was assassinated — there were just too many shots fired at him. But while his family, and, certainly, his political associates, may see a political motive behind all of this, I am sure the answer will lie in his businesses which, by the time he died, were in a catastrophic state.

The degree to which he was lionised in the first few days after the killing was just plain silly. Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka called him a great South African. I am not so sure. Kebble’s views on the deputy president are unprintable in a quality newspaper.

He did little for black empowerment, fixing up maybe 50 or so people in any serious way, and I wonder what will happen now to those empowerment companies he helped establish. Many, surely, will not survive his passing. Neither could he have been the patriot he has been described as. Patriots pay their taxes and Kebble still, apparently, owes SARS about R100m.

Nevertheless, I shall miss him. He was a lovable rogue and arguably the most entertaining lunch or dinner companion in the country. ‖

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A98063