[Debate] ANC/Kebble's Crony Capitalism 2.0 problem

[Patrick Bond]

*Death throes of Crony Capitalism 2.0 *

Brett Kebble continues teaching from the grave

By Patrick Bond

Mercury 'Eye on Society' column, 8 May 2012

The machinations of the late Brett Kebble remain of enduring interest, 
not least because he ripped off maybe a billion and a half rand in his 
decade of CEO chaos.

Last Friday, at Johannesburg's Market Theatre, Allan Horwitz's parody 
play about Kebble, /Comrade Babble, /opened to a packed house. The same 
day, the African National Congress settled an out-of-court bill with the 
Kebble estate trustees, based on money dished out after he was 
technically bankrupt. Of more than R20 million in gifts to the ANC and 
its leading politicians, the trustees honed in on R250 000 donated in 2004.

ANC treasurer Matthews Phosa initially refused to give it back, arguing 
on behalf of bribery: "Kebble obtained the benefit of access to 
political decision makers and lawmakers that would be beneficial to him, 
both directly and indirectly, by virtue of its benefits to the companies 
in which he had an interest."

With the Kebble bill behind them, ANC leaders can now turn to a related 
task at a funeral on Saturday: restoring the image of 'Category 1' state 
hero Sicelo Shiceka, a man responsible not only for a Kebble-caliber 
hedonistic lifestyle paid involuntarily by others, but also for so many 
service delivery protests through brutal tactics honed when he was 
Gauteng's local government MEC fifteen years ago.

As Shiceko bragged when personally commandeering a Caterpillar to cut 
all the water and electricity mains into East Rand townships after a 
1997 non-payment spate, "We are now at the stage of coercion, and it's 
paying dividends."

Shiceka was promoted to local government minister, and you can joke all 
you want about his 'turnaround'-and-around strategy -- whereby we are 
left in precisely the same place in municipal service non-delivery as 
before -- but you cannot question his commitment to class war against 
his constituents, dressed up as ever in talk-left walk-right drag.

Indeed we should all learn from Kebble's fate about three kinds of 
colour-coded Crony Capitalism. Through the mid-1990s, you could call 
South Africa a case of Crony Capitalism 1.0 in which state and corporate 
corruption flourished and white-on-white accumulation was facilitated by 
white-against-black apartheid violence and exploitation.

 From 1994 until recently, it was still largely white-against-black 
oppression at the workplace that allowed black-on-white accumulation 
('BEE') through Crony Capitalism 2.0. The depths were plumbed by 
Kebble's largesse and the ethics of his trainee, Mzi Khumalo, from whom 
the SA Reserve Bank now seeks an illegally-expatriated R1 billion.

"The era of mega-BEE wealth transfers is gone for good," Gordon Institute of Business Science researcher Andile Makhunga told/City Press/last week, because BEE "simply transferred wealth to a few individuals -- while in the rest of the economy, black people's incomes were declining significantly."

Kebble got away with it for way too long thanks to the lack of regulator 
oversight, as well as the blindness of South Africa's business 
journalists, with the exception of /noseweek's /Martin Welz and /The 
Citizen's /Paul Kirk, both of whom made it to Kebble's 'hit list'. 
Kebble's financial supporters were creditor Investec and the R220 
billion Allen Gray fund. State regulators were simply absent.

What of Crony Capitalism 3.0's fate? With the demise of Julius Malema's 
tenderpreneurship, and with the denouement of Aurora looting -- 
featuring Zuma nephew Khulubuse, Zuma lawyer Michael Hulley and Mandela 
grandson Zondwa -- we see the terminal logic ofblack-on-black 
accumulation and exploitation. (Although to break the mould, the 
Solidarity trade union argues that there was also substantial unpaid 
black-on-white exploitation of its members working at Pamodzi.)

In September 2005, Kebble suffered what the National Prosecuting 
Authority termed an 'assisted suicide'. The man who hired the shooters, 
Clinton Nassif, "was looking for means of killing Kebble in a way that 
would not look like a suicide, so that the insurance could still pay out 
and look after his family," Nassif's main assistant testified.

To add to the confusion, even after Kebble's financial fall and 
disreputable death, a horde of politicians and business elites proudly 
attended his Cape Town funeral: Essop Pahad, David Gleason, Brigitte 
Radebe, Saki Macozoma, Peter Gray, Mafika Mkwanazi, Tokyo Sexwale, Tony 
Yengeni, Ebrahim Rasool, Mo Shaik, Pam Golding, Nomaindia Mfeketo, 
Limpho Hani, Mbulelo Goniwe, Baleka Mbete and Dali Tambo.

The pallbearers were ANC youth leaders Lunga Ncwana, Songezo Mjongile, 
Andile Nkuhlu and Sharif Pandor. Sports minister Fikile Mbalula, the 
Malema ally anticipated to run against incumbent Gwede Mantashe for 
general secretary of the ANC at Mangaung in December, was a 
well-lubricated beneficiary with a reported taste for Johnnie Walker Blue.

May their names always be associated with Kebble, and may someone please 
provide an assisted suicide to the tendency in the ruling party seeking 
the next disastrous edition of Crony Capitalism.


***


(Here's a version 50% longer)


*Death throes of Crony Capitalism 2.0 *

Brett Kebble still teaches from the grave

The machinations of the late Brett Kebble during the late 1990s and 
early 2000s remain of enduring interest, not least because he ripped off 
maybe a billion and a half rand in his decade of CEO chaos.

Last Friday at the Market Theatre, Allan Kolski Horwitz's parody play 
about Kebble, /Comrade Babble, /opened to a packed house (disclosure -- 
I wrote a long intro to the play's book version, available at 
http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za).

That day, the African National Congress also settled a debt with the 
Kebble estate, which is trying to raise hundreds of millions that Kebble 
owed creditors and investors. Some of it was dished out after he was 
technically bankrupt, so the trustees have an obligation to collect 
these illegal transfers.

Of more than R20 million in gifts to the ANC and its leading 
politicians, the trustees honed in on R250 000 given in 2004. ANC 
treasurer Matthews Phosa initially refused to repay, arguing in the 
courts that it was for services rendered: "Kebble obtained the benefit 
of access to political decision makers and lawmakers that would be 
beneficial to him, both directly and indirectly, by virtue of its 
benefits to the companies in which he had an interest."

Utterly shameless though Luthuli House has become, what with 
incorrigible Karl Niehaus announcing last week that he'll soon have a 
top job there, even Phosa had to fold his hand and pay back the gift 
last Friday.

Sadly, we have insufficient power in civil society to demand an overhaul 
of political party financing, so South Africa will probably degenerate 
further, perhaps even to the level of British Tories, with high-level 
state access and favours given in exchange for Kebble-style bribery.

That embarrassment behind them, ANC leaders can now turn to a related 
task at a funeral this coming Saturday: restoring the image of Sicelo 
Shiceka, a man responsible not only for a Kebble-caliber hedonistic 
lifestyle paid involuntarily by others, but also for so many service 
delivery protests through brutal tactics honed in Gauteng's mean streets 
when he was local government MEC fifteen years ago.

As Shiceko bragged when personally commandeering a Caterpillar to cut 
all the water and electricity mains into East Rand townships after a 
1997 spate of non-payment, "We are now at the stage of coercion, and 
it's paying dividends."

Somewhat mistranslated by the SA Communist Party in an epitaph to 
Shiceka: "He was a dynamic link between our movement and its mass base, 
the people, where he excelled in mass work and loved this area of 
activity."

Shiceka was recently promoted to local government minister, and you can 
joke all you want about his 'turnaround'-and-around strategy -- whereby 
we are left in precisely the same place in municipal service 
non-delivery as before -- but most importantly, never forget the 
/durability /of these men's commitment to neoliberal class war against 
their constituents, dressed up as always in talk-left walk-right drag.

Indeed we should learn from Kebble's fate about three kinds of 
colour-coded Crony Capitalism. From the 1860s through the mid-1990s, you 
could call South Africa a case of Crony Capitalism 1.0 in which state 
and corporate corruption flourished and white-on-white accumulation was 
facilitated by white-on-black apartheid violence.

 From 1994 until recently, it was still largely white-on-black 
oppression at the workplace that allowed a modicum of black-on-white 
accumulation ('BEE') in Crony Capitalism 2.0. The lowest depths were 
plumbed by Kebble's largesse and by the ethics of his trainee, Mzi 
Khumalo, from whom the SA Reserve Bank seeks R1 billion in illegally 
expatriated funds.

"The era of mega-BEE wealth transfers is gone for good," Gordon Institute of Business Science researcher Andile Makhunga told/City Press/last week. "Whereas there is more than R200 billion worth of BEE deals done thus far, valuations of the wealth created by this model have been eroded by the economic crises." Moreover, BEE "simply transferred wealth to a few individuals -- while in the rest of the economy, black people's incomes were declining significantly."

Crony Capitalism 2.0 at least provided us a new word: last year, the 
KwaZulu-Natal branch of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA 
criticized the "deep-seated and entrenched /Kebbleism /within the ANC 
Youth League in order to capture state machinery for self-centred 
economic and accumulation interests."

And now with the demise of Julius Malema's tenderpreneurship and the 
denouement of Aurora looting -- featuring Zuma nephew Khulubuse, Zuma 
lawyer Michael Hulley and Mandela grandson Zondwa -- we see the terminal 
logic of Crony Capitalism 3.0's black-on-black accumulation. (Although 
to break the mould a bit, the Solidarity trade union argues that there 
was substantial unpaid black-on-white exploitation of its members at 
Pamodzi.)

Kebble's inverted pyramid crashed in mid-2005, after the fraudster had 
looted the venerable mining houses JCI, Western Areas and Randgold. 
Barry Sergeant's /Brett Kebble: The Inside Story, /reveals the man 
"moving from one rats-and-mice deal to the next, concocting one 
irregular transaction after another. The virtuoso moved into a jejune 
phase of his business career, seemingly determined to prove that when 
measured as a conventional businessman, he was a complete and utter 
disaster."

But he long got away with it thanks to the lack of regulator oversight, 
as well as the blindness of South Africa's business journalists, with 
the exception of /noseweek's /Martin Welz and /The Citizen's /Paul Kirk, 
both of whom made it to Kebble's 'hit list'. Kebble's financial 
supporters were creditor Investec and the R220 billion Allen Gray fund 
which owned around a fifth of the three Kebble-controlled firms.

In September 2005, Kebble suffered what the National Prosecuting 
Authority termed an 'assisted suicide'. The man who hired the shooters, 
Clinton Nassif, "was looking for means of killing Kebble in a way that 
would not look like a suicide, so that the insurance could still pay out 
and look after his family," Nassif's main assistant testified in court.

Indemnity from prosecution was given to the three killers, and it was 
underworld crime boss Glenn Agliotti -- a dear friend of then Police 
Commissioner Jackie Selebi ('finish en klaar') -- who confessed to have 
been the main suicide assister, and who nevertheless won acquittal from 
Judge Frans Kgomo.

To add to the confusion, even after Kebble's financial fall and 
disreputable death, a horde of politicians and business elites proudly 
attended his Cape Town funeral: Essop Pahad, David Gleason, Brigitte 
Radebe, Saki Macozoma, Peter Gray, Mafika Mkwanazi, Tokyo Sexwale, Tony 
Yengeni, Ebrahim Rasool, Mo Shaik, Pam Golding, Nomaindia Mfeketo, 
Limpho Hani, Mbulelo Goniwe, Baleka Mbete and Dali Tambo.

The pallbearers were ANC youth leaders Lunga Ncwana, Songezo Mjongile, 
Andile Nkuhlu and Sharif Pandor. Sports minister Fikile Mbalula, the 
Malema ally anticipated to run against incumbent Gwede Mantashe for 
general secretary of the ANC at Mangaung in December, was a 
well-lubricated beneficiary. Mandy Weiner's exhaustive book /Killing 
Kebble /reports//the dead man's butler describing Mbalula: "He'd come 
here and in like an hour he'd finished off a bottle of Johnny Walker 
Blue Label."

May their names always be associated with Kebble, and may someone please 
provide an assisted suicide to that tendency in the ruling party seeking 
the next disastrous edition of Crony Capitalism.



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