The grieving father of murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble told mourners at his son’s funeral service in Cape Town on Tuesday that he would do everything in his power to get to the bottom of his son’s murder.
”Of one thing I am sure, I will do all within my power to get to the bottom of Brett’s death,” vowed Roger Kebble.
His eulogy was read out on his behalf in a packed St George’s Cathedral by family friend David Gleason after he was overcome by emotion and had to be helped from the podium to his seat by his son Guy.
Brett Kebble (41) was shot dead in Johannesburg on Tuesday last week on his way to dinner. Police have not been able to say whether the killing of the controversial businessman was an assassination or a botched hijacking.
Politicians, business associates, family members and friends crowded into the cathedral on Tuesday afternoon to pay their respects.
Among them were business magnates Tokyo Sexwale, Bridgette Radebe, Saki Macozoma and Pam Golding, Minister in the Office of the President Essop Pahad, who delivered the main tribute, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a clutch of African National Congress MPs, Cape Town Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, television personality Dali Tambo, Schabir Shaik’s brother former spymaster Mo, and rugby player James Dalton.
Outside the cathedral, one admirer asked Sexwale to autograph his Bible. Sexwale refused, signing a piece of scrap paper for the man instead.
Kebble’s coffin, draped in a South African flag, was carried into the cathedral past an honour guard of khaki-clad ANC marshals, by pallbearers from the ANC Youth League, (ANCYL) with whom he had close connections.
The pallbearers included ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula and Andile Nkuhlu, with whom Kebble was to have had dinner on the night he died.
Father Roger and brother Guy, a former Western province rugby player, stood at the head of the coffin as the cathedral organ thundered out the accompaniment to the national anthem, before moving with the coffin to the front of the cathedral.
‘He could have taught me so much’
As a haze of incense rose between the soaring columns of the nave, three of Kebble’s four children paid tribute to their father.
”My dad was a soft-hearted person. My dad was a family man. Some people made negative comments about him, but they didn’t know him the way we and his friends knew him,” said eldest son, 13-year-old Matthew.
He said the majority of people surrounding his father had been his supporters.
”A few weren’t. We have witnessed unspeakable actions of those few. Knowing my dad, he would probably forgive those who harmed him,” he said.
Matthew said every moment of the limited time the four siblings — himself, Andrew, Hannah and youngest Elizabeth — could spend with their father had been special.
”Some of my best memories were of him making my mom [Ingrid] tea in bed…. Also of him making crumpets and pancakes for my friends and I.”
Matthew said his father was ”extraordinarily talented” and could play the piano ”like a pro, he cooked like a chef, he loved his garden and he understood politics and business.
”I don’t think that there’s ever been a person that knew so much about life at the age of 41, which is a pity as he could have taught me so much.”
The stuff of ‘legend’
Roger Kebble said in the eulogy read on his behalf that the impact of the ”monstrous act” on the family concerned him most.
”I am personally devastated, so is Brett’s loving mother Julie, so is Ingrid, his faithful wife. and so are his children.”
He said his son’s accomplishments had become ”part of legend”, and that he had had an enormous impact on the South African mining industry.
Roger, whose son joined him in the mining industry in 1991 when the two bought a controlling stake in Rand Leases gold mining company, said Kebble understood that in order to keep many mining operations alive, empowerment was a ”non-negotiable essential”.
”Every subsequent initiative he embarked on incorporated empowerment.”
He said his son made many enemies, as well as friends, but importantly never allowed personal allegiances to affect his belief and vision.
The ANCYL’s Nkuhlu, a business partner of Kebble’s, said in his tribute that in a world where youth and inexperience were shunned, Kebble’s ”outstretched hand” became ”the ultimate bridge to experience and maturity”.
”In a country where what is black is still suspect, marginal and less credible, having Brett on your side made a world of difference.”
In his address, Pahad said: ”Today we salute the memory of a remarkable person who was larger than life and who shouldered controversy with a natural sense of fortitude and even puckish charm.”
Kebble’s murder had thrown into sharp relief the relationship between the rights and responsibilities of the media under the Constitution.
In death, as in life, Kebble was a figure who generated intense controversy.
Unfortunately over the past few days the country had witnessed media speculation about Kebble that seemed to border on the obsessive.
Articles that appeared to summarily both try and convict Kebble of wrongdoing in his past financial dealings victimised the entire Kebble family.
”We must be vigilant in our sight against crime but we must also be mindful that South Africa has lost a dedicated son against whom no case has currently been proved,” Pahad said.
In a constitutional democracy such as South Africa’s, one was presumed innocent until proven guilty, and was accorded the right to a fair trial in an impartial court of law.
”Some media reports have made a casualty of the rule of law… Brett it appears in death was not accorded these fundamental human rights,” Pahad said.
The service included a hymn in Xhosa, a reading in Xhosa, and a solo rendition of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem.
A collection was taken in support of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
There was a strong media contingent at the funeral, though photographers and television cameras were not admitted inside the cathedral for the service.
Kebble’s body will be cremated at a private ceremony on Wednesday. – Sapa