/ 6 January 2006

Did Brett Kebble really die?

A startling revelation in a cellphone photograph has been e-mailed to Not the Mail & Guardian. It would seem that the controversial businessman Brett Kebble was not in fact murdered late last year. A man believed to be Kebble has been spotted living it up on what are generally believed to be his ill-gotten gains at a small but exclusive holiday resort on the Caribbean island of St Joseph.

A South African woman, working on the island as a specialised podiatrist and masseur, recognised what she believed ‘was the Brett Kebble I have massaged many times in Johannesburg. I would recognise that back view anywhere,” she claimed, insisting she remain anonymous.

‘He has changed his hairstyle and has grown a large black moustache and sideburns, wears strange lozenge-shaped spectacles, but there was little he could do about his shape.”

Several expert forensic specialists were asked for their opinion, as well as Dr David Klatzow who, after the now dubious ‘murder” of Kebble, was employed by the financier’s brother and father to oversee police investigations before being dismissed a few days later. The general opinion is that a professionally staged murder of a Kebble look-alike was a ‘brilliant way for the real Kebble to make his getaway as the forces of the law were closing in on him,” said one of the expert forensic scientists. ‘With his money, he would be able to fund an entirely new identity.”

A disturbing, but possibly relevant, fact is that the Mercedes car in which ‘Kebble” was brutally gunned to death, mysteriously ‘disappeared” immediately after the murder, and only given back to the police after it had been meticulously cleaned of any evidence. ‘Makes you wonder what they were all trying to hide,” commented one expert.

Kebble is alleged to have cunningly misappropriated Rand Gold finances to the tune of about R4-billion, and was facing income tax and other debts exceeding R260-million. ‘He was on the brink of being arrested and charged with criminal fraud, which could have seen him put away for many, many years,” said a lawyer contacted by Not the M&G for comment.

The masseur said she is attempting to acquire some tissue samples from the man she believes to be Kebble. ‘I’ll bump into him and try to scratch him or something,” she said. Such a tissue sample as she might acquire from under her fingernails would be sent to South Africa for comparison with Kebble’s DNA.

Asked whether she knew the identity of the shapely young ‘thonged” woman holding hands with the man in the photograph she believed to be Kebble, the masseur said that several such attractive young women were frequently to be seen in his company. ‘He seems a most genial personality and the great ability with which he plays the resort piano has made him very popular with other guests.”

Asked for comment, the African National Congress Youth League said that if Kebble was indeed still alive, the members of the league would have reason to rejoice. —