Roger Kebble’s death marks the end of an era

[miningmx.com] – Roger Kebble – who shot himself in Cape Town today – had kept a low profile since his son Brett was found dead in an apparent “assisted suicide’ nearly 10 years ago on September 27, 2005.

Since then there have been two major debates which, to this day, dominate any discussion by interested parties of the Kebble saga which is one of the most colourful in South African mining history.

Those are; did Brett Kebble really agree to be killed through an “assisted suicide’ or was he actually murdered and – to what extent was Roger directly involved in his son’s corporate shenanigans?

Opinion on the latter issue is split right down the middle with Roger Kebble’s public reputation having been badly damaged in the bust-up with former DRDGold chairman Mark Wellesley-Wood over allegations of fraud regarding DRDGold’s operations in Australasia. Wellesley-Wood managed to have Roger Kebble removed from the DRDGold board .

Yet former Harmony CEO Bernard Swanepoel – who had more than his fair share of disputes with the Kebbles, particularly in the takeover battle for Randfontein which turned very ugly – commented, “I remember and speak of Roger fondly.

“He took me to dinner and offered me the job of running Harmony which was a brilliant moment in my life which I have never regretted.

“The Roger Kebble that, more and more, I remember was the hard core miner who was part of the team around Peter Flack which took over Randgold & Exploration in 1994 and set about restructuring the bloated South African mining industry.’

“He was a real miner. The kind of guy who could walk into a boardroom and get the attention of the other mining executives there. The kind of guy who could convince a mass meeting of striking miners to go back to work. He was good to me and the industry I was part of.’

Swanepoel’s sentiments were echoed by another mining industry veteran – who spoke on condition of anonymity – and who described Roger Kebble as a ” a lovable rogue’.

“He was a real professional who came up through the ranks doing his time as a miner, shift boss and mine captain and he understood deep-level gold mining. Yes, he could be a rogue but I do not believe he knew what his son subsequently go up to because Brett hid much of it from him.’

That’s also the view of Wellesley-Wood who told Miningmx, ” I was very sad to hear of Roger’s death. He was a character and the world actually needs more characters like Roger.’

Asked why he held this view given his previous corporate strife with Roger Kebble, Wellesley-Wood replied, ” there’s corporate strife and then there’s knowing someone as a person. I think he was too indulgent with Brett who took full advantage of the situation and I think the business principles of the Kebble family must have been a great disappointment to him which he carried for the rest of his life. “

That standpoint is rejected by another mining executive – speaking on condition of anonymity – who believes that Roger Kebble had to know of – and must have been involved in – the various scams that his son carried out.

Roger Kebble came to prominence in 1994 as part of the team led by Peter Flack and backed by UK financial institution Mercury Asset Management which launched a successful hostile takeover of the former Randgold & Exploration (Randgold).

Randgold at the time controlled a number of marginal gold mines such as Harmony and Durban Roodepoort Deep and was winding their operations down through a management strategy dubbed “death with dignity’ which infuriated Mercury Asset Management.

The rest, as they say, is history. Eventually three separate gold groups were spun out of the former Randgold – Harmony, DRDGold and Randgold Resources of which Randgold Resources has been by far the most successful. Listed on the London stock exchange it is now arguably the world’s most successful gold mining group.

Randgold Resources had been run from the outset by Mark Bristow who had a stormy relationship with the Kebbles and who played a key role in Brett’s eventual downfall.

Bristow commented, “I had a special relationship with Roger but, at the end of the day, family was what counted and he took Brett’s side against mine during those very complex times at Randgold.

“I think he subsequently struggled to live with the fact that he was let down so badly by his son.”

During those times the Kebbles had also parted ways with Flack who had maintained something of a restraining influence on Brett while he was in charge of Randgold.