ANC election funder, alleged bankroller for sacked deputy president Jacob Zuma, and a close business associate of the ANC Youth League, are just some of the controversies that have surrounded Brett Kebble in recent years.

The mining tycoon most recently made headlines late last month when he resigned from several senior mining posts, including Western Areas and JCI Limited.

Last year, Kebble admitted to being one of the mystery donors who pumped half-a-million rands into the cash-strapped ANC in the Western Cape. After an exposé in the Sunday Times, he released a statement saying he was a "patriot" who would continue providing financial assistance for the "development of democracy".

Kebble has also long been connected with the ANCYL and some ANC MPs, leading some commentators to suggest he had made himself unpopular in other powerful circles.

Yet other commentators have named him as one of Zuma's biggest benefactors.

Some media reports have also suggested that senior ANCYL leaders served as "fronts" for some of the Kebble family's business interests.

His alleged financial support for the ANCYL has always been believed to be for protection, political favours and manoeuvring in muddy business deals.

This was apparently revealed by former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka in his controversial off-the-record meeting with editors in the winter of 2003, when he allegedly implied Kebble was paying protection fees to the ANCYL.

Kebble promptly announced he was taking Ngcuka to the public protector, and advocate Willem Heath also joined the fray, confirming he had been instructed by Roger and Brett Kebble to "investigate abuses of power" by Ngcuka and ex-justice minister Penuell Maduna.

At the time, Kebble said Ngcuka was out to settle personal scores against him.

"There has been a deafening silence from the authorities about the fact that Mr Ngcuka has abused his office when he addressed the editors," he said.

Shareholders in some of his subsidiary companies include politicians or those connected to politicians.

Kebble, whose business deals with the ANCYL included interest in the organisation's investment arm, Lembede, told a weekly paper in March about his political connections.

"My personal policy and that of JCI is to make donations to political parties that support democracy, and we see it as our duty as patriots so to do.

"JCI is one of the most forward-looking companies and is committed to empowerment deals that contribute to skills transfer and transactions that properly empower people.

"It would be very nice if other South African companies do the same - at the moment a large number of so-called empowerment transactions are designed either to provide a shield to old-order capital or to allow one or two so-called empowered individuals to build power bases in capital which will further their political ambitions," he said.

When he resigned as chief executive of Western Areas and JCI last month, there was an interesting coincidence when the ANCYL was reported to have financial problems during the same period.

With acknowledgements to Moshoeshoe Monare, Sheena Adams and the Cape Times.