ONE of South Africa’s most flamboyant and prominent mining magnates has been shot dead in a mafia-style killing, sending shockwaves through the business community.

Brett Kebble, 41, who had close links to senior figures in the ruling African National Congress, was shot dead at the wheel of his silver Mercedes in an upmarket district of north Johannesburg on Tuesday night. His car was riddled by bullets as it approached a bridge over the Johannesburg to Pretoria motorway, a popular hijacking spot, in the Melrose district.

The tycoon, who lived with his wife and children in Cape Town, was on his way to dinner at the home of a business associate, with senior members of the ANC Youth League. No effort was made to rob him or take his car, which crashed.

The killing of a man known to many as “deal-a-day” Kebble shocked a nation used to daily reports of killings and violent crimes.

Neal Froneman, chief executive of Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources, said: “This chilling attack in our financial capital can only harm the reputation of South Africa as a place in which to do business.”

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Deputy President, told world businessmen at a conference in the city that the killing would be investigated. There was no reason for investors to shun the country, he said.

Police began a murder investigation but declined to say whether it was an assassination or a botched carjacking. Most South Africans, however, were in little doubt that it bore the hallmarks of a well-planned hit. Mr Kebble had no shortage of enemies and had received death threats in the past.

A combative personality, he was equally at home telling risqué jokes at male business functions, back-slapping at ANC fundraising events, or quoting Shakespeare to acolytes. More recently he became a patron of the arts and sponsored several awards.

He had also been associated with key Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) deals in the lucrative diamond and gold mining sectors. BEE, which the Government has used to give more blacks access to industry, has been criticised for cronyism, with ANC officials.

“For some, he was a crook whose empire had collapsed,” Johannesburg’s leading Daily Star newspaper wrote. “For others he was a creative and quick-thinking businessman who dared to make deals that others shied away from.”

Mr Kebble was forced to resign last month as chief executive of three mining companies — Randgold and Exploration, JCI and Western Areas — with overlapping interests, under pressure from shareholders worried about financial problems at the companies. Last month the Johannesburg Stock Exchange suspended the listings of JCI and Randgold and Exploration when they failed to file annual statements.

Nasdaq in New York delisted Randgold last week for the same reason.

A lawyer by training, Mr Kebble joined his father, Roger, in 1991 to buy a controlling stake in Rand Leases Gold Mining, and in 1994, the same year that the first black democratic government was elected, they took over Randgold. They were the architects of one of the biggest investment deals in South African mining history when 50 per cent of the South Deep gold mine was sold to the Canadian miner Placer Dome for $235 million.

Mr Kebble assiduously cultivated close links with senior ANC figures and is said to have been a benefactor of the former Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, whose trial on corruption charges begins next month.

The sacking of Mr Zuma by President Mbeki this year created the biggest crisis for the ANC since it gained power.

Last year Mr Kebble admitted being one of the mystery donors who pumped £40,000 in cash into the ANC in Western Cape after it was torn apart by accusations of financial mismanagement.

Mr Kebble was never far from controversy. Charges of fraud against his father were dropped last month when a key witness refused to testify.

Martin Welz, the editor of Noseweek, an investigative magazine, said: “If this was not a hijacking gone wrong, then this is either revenge or a means to silence him.”

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