Killing Kebble

Mandy Wiener

Description

In September 2005 one of South Africa’s most eminent mining magnates and businessmen Brett Kebble was killed on a quiet suburban street in Johannesburg. The investigation into the case was a tipping point for democratic South Africa. The top-level investigation that followed exposed the corrupt relationship between the country’s Chief of Police and Interpol President Jackie Selebi and suave Mafioso Glenn Agliotti. A lawless Johannesburg underbelly was exposed – dominated by drug lords, steroid-reliant bouncers, an international smuggling syndicate, a shady security unit moonlighting for the police and sinister self-serving sleuths abusing state agencies.

Sujets

• True Crime
• General officer
• Organized Crime
• Murder
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Pan Macmillan South Africa
• Date de parution: 25 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781770102729
• Langue: English

Extrait

About this book
In September 2005 Brett Kebble, a prominent South African mining magnate, was killed on a quiet suburban street in Johannesburg in an apparent assisted suicide . The top-level investigation that followed was a tipping point for democratic South Africa. It exposed the corrupt relationship between South Africa s Chief of Police, Interpol President Jackie Selebi and his friend, Glenn Agliotti, and revealed an underworld dominated by drug lords, steroid-fuelled bouncers, hit men for hire, an international smuggling syndicate, a dubious security unit moonlighting for the police and sinister self-serving sleuths abusing state agencies. It even cost the country s most senior prosecutor his job.
Indemnified by an agreement struck with the state, Mikey Schultz, Nigel McGurk and Fiazal Kappie Smith come clean to Mandy Wiener in exclusive interviews about the chilling events leading up to the night Kebble was shot dead and the life paths of the bungling assassins . Glenn Agliotti, the man once accused of orchestrating the hit, has also provided Wiener with access to his story, as have other characters whose versions of the events are previously untold.
This true crime tale is set against the fascinating background of political interference at the highest level, a bitter feud between two arms of the country s law enforcement authorities, a festering police service tainted by dirty cops and the shady relationships between the magnate and aspirant young political turks who were ready recipients of his largesse.
Killing Kebble is not the story of one murder. It s a gritty, fast-paced chronicle of how one death blew the lid off Johannesburg s underworld.
Praise for Killing Kebble
After five years of following every thread and detail of the Kebble case Wiener not only had a complex story to which few other journalists had access, but also the perspective needed to turn it into a riveting bestseller that would be both insightful and accessible.
- Mail Guardian
For a first book to sell in the quantities Killing Kebble has is no small feat but the book is so much more than numbers and sensationalism. As gripping as any novel, Killing Kebble is an exuberant but meticulously researched example of how to write a complex story which if it appeared as fiction would be dismissed as so unbelievable as to be not worth reading. Written with brio and panache, this is a memorable book.
- Jenny Crwys-Williams
Mandy s book is terrific, although the title disappoints as it turns out, she isn t the person who killed Kebble. It s a story that will make you uncomfortable about just how rotten the criminal underbelly of Johannesburg really is – but is an absorbing investigative account of one of the most interesting murders in our recent criminal history.
- Gareth Cliff
A gritty mining town tale. Stranger than fiction. And totally gripping. Superb!
- Peter Harris
A compelling visceral account of the rise, fall and death of a complex, larger-than-life personality, Killing Kebble reveals the intertwining of business, politics and organised crime that is one of the greatest threats to our democracy. It demonstrates the extent to which prosecutorial independence and the rule of law have been undermined by our political leaders and the resulting quagmire that is law enforcement in the country. This fascinating, racy book provides a remarkable portrait of the characters at the centre of this tragic story, in the process illuminating the dark underbelly of South Africa that is unknown to most of us.
- Andrew Feinstein
If you re not reading this book, just finished reading this book, or at least discussing it, expect to feel like an outsider in most social circles this year ... With incredible access to most of the main players in the Kebble saga, Wiener has provided the most penetrating assessment of these events to date ... Killing Kebble is unput-downable mind-blowing reading.
- Classic Feel
Killing Kebble is a meticulous account of the courtroom drama ... Wiener has used her notes and tweets to write a compulsively readable story about South Africa s villains ... [I]t shows just how deep the rot goes.
- Brian Joss, Cape Community Papers
I read Killing Kebble hoping to be bored out of my mind, but ended up klapping the thing in three days.
- Peter Delmar, The Times
For my parents, who set me on this path. Enjoy the naartjies. And for Sean, who has taught me how to live and to love.
Killing Kebble
An Underworld Exposed
Mandy Wiener
MACMILLAN
First published in 2011 by Pan Macmillan South Africa
Private Bag X19, Northlands
Johannesburg, 2116
This paperback edition published in 2012 by Pan Macmillan South Africa
www.panmacmillan.co.za
Revised and Updated Paperback ISBN: 978-1-77010-245-3
Revised and Updated eBook ISBN: 978-1-77010-272-9
Mandy Wiener 2011, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of the details, facts, names, places and events mentioned in these pages, but the publisher and author welcome any feedback, comments and/or corrections on the content, which is based on numerous interviews, court documents, newspaper reports, author experiences and other sources. In order to preserve authenticity all tweets and SMS messages have been reproduced exactly as originally received or sent.
Editing by Valda Strauss and Andrea Nattrass
Proofreading by Lisa Compton
Cover design by K4
Tec-9 photograph from Gallo Images/Getty Images
At a glance, or in the eye of the uninitiated, one may be excused of thinking or saying that this is a run of the mill case of murder and conspiracy to commit any other offence. This is not so. In my view this case is about hidden and/or sinister agendas perpetrated by shady characters as well as ostensibly crooked and/or greedy businesspersons. It is about corrupt civil servants as well as prominent politicians or politically connected people wining and dining with devils incarnate under cover of darkness.

Judge Frans Kgomo 25 November 2010
Table of Contents



Cover
About this book
Praise for Killing Kebble
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Prologue
Killing Kebble
Picture Section 1
Picture Section 2
Postscript
Author interview
Acknowledgements
Foreword
The Brett Kebble murder captured the imagination of an entire nation. A mining tycoon who was gunned down in the dead of night in what may, or may not, have been a hijacking, by people he may, or may not, have known.
A man of means who was politically connected, Brett Kebble had attracted a fair amount of negative publicity in the run-up to his untimely death.
The speculation about his killing mounted and the story dominated Eyewitness News for weeks on end. South Africa was intrigued.
Deciding that Mandy Wiener would be the reporter we would send to the scene and who would go live into our prime-time bulletins was a quick decision. She was a good reporter who handled live questions and answers on the radio particularly well. She also lived close by and was therefore an obvious choice.
Who would have thought that deploying her to the scene of the crime would lead to years of investigative work on her part and that it would culminate in this book?
Over the years, Mandy fought to hold onto this story and covered almost every aspect of it as one sordid detail after the next began to emerge.
She spent months following the court proceedings and linking the protagonists of this murky underworld as Glenn Agliotti stood trial for Kebble s murder. It became a standing joke among her colleagues in the newsroom who would comment that she d pitched a tent and taken a sleeping bag to court because that s where she s now living .
Mandy cultivated excellent contacts and showed great flair in her reporting on new developments; her thorough investigations made her an expert on the subject and this book reveals the remarkable depth of her understanding of the events which unfolded. She was instrumental in helping to revolutionise the way news is reported on Twitter with her constant courtroom tweets.
Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed is very much in line with the Eyewitness News philosophy of not only breaking the news, but following the evolution of such stories to their natural conclusions. This book also reflects Mandy s brilliant journalistic instinct and reminds me of one of the first assignments I sent her on.
As a young intern Mandy and another junior were tasked with going door-to-door in Houghton to ask about recent water cuts in the area. A relatively simple and safe assignment one would think. They were in for a rude awakening though as they were held up at gunpoint.
Instead of panicking, Mandy kept her wits about her and simply pressed record on her equipment - capturing the entire incident.
I knew at that moment that the young traffic intern who insisted on being a part of the newsroom had what it took to be a phenomenal journalist.
Those who followed the Eyewitness News coverage of the Brett Kebble murder will be intrigued by this in-depth account of one of the most dramatic stories of our country s recent history. The readers will experience first-hand how the good reporter we sent out that September turned out to be the great reporter whose work you read in these pages.
Eyewitness News is extremely proud to be represented by Mandy as she tackled the story and is equally proud to see how she has taken her work in the newsroom and turned it into what we believe is an outstanding book.

Katy Katopodis Editor-in-Chief, Eyewitness News