Murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble put more than R50-million worth of his own Cape Town properties up for sale in the 18 months before his death, in what many commentators called a desperate effort to raise cash.

Police were by yesterday still declining to comment on the progress of their investigation into the killing of Kebble, who was shot in Johannesburg this week.

At the time of his death the controversial and flamboyant businessman was facing the worst crisis in his 15-year business career, with his empire crumbling around him and law-enforcement agencies breathing down his neck.

• He had been ousted from Western Areas (joint owner of one of the world’s richest gold deposits), the mining group JCI and Randgold & Exploration;
• His companies had been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange for failing to produce audited results on time;
• Trading in his companies’ shares on the JSE Securities Exchange had been suspended for late submission of annual results;
• Randgold & Exploration shareholders were asking tough questions about the whereabouts of shares worth more than R1.3-billion that had gone “missing”;
• He was due to stand trial next year for allegedly manipulating the share price of the gold-mining company Harmony five years ago; and
• The South African Revenue Service was seeking R100-million in unpaid taxes from him.

There have been indications that with the drying up of the money with which he dispensed patronage, he was becoming tight-fisted in funding the lifestyles of his political connections.

The Sunday Times has learnt that he had already sold two properties and one prime piece of land in the expensive Cape Town suburb of Bishopscourt for a combined R27.75-million.

This week, analysts, estate agents and municipal records revealed an astonishing list of luxury personal assets that Kebble had amassed as investments and trappings of his Randlord lifestyle.

Among them were at least 12 plush homes in South Africa, and — as at the end of 2000 — five men’s watches worth a combined R900000, as well as at least seven luxury cars, including two Ferraris.

Last year, he began a dramatic sell-off of his properties with the sale of a prime parcel of Bishopscourt land for a record R12.5-million to developer Allan Collier.

He then sold a favourite mansion, 4 Kirstenbosch Drive, for R7.75-million, followed by a nearby property for R7.5-million.

Six of Kebble’s properties are still on the market — none for less than R5-million, and including “Kirstenberry Lodge”, listed at R8.5-million.

Andrew Golding, chief executive of Pam Golding Properties, this week confirmed the sales, but said: “There were no undue discounts offered, and there was no indication of any kind of desperate sell-off.

“He was always a very astute property investor, with an absolute passion for the top end of the market,” said Golding.

“Without a doubt, he, on his own, had a significant positive impact on property [values] in Bishopscourt.”

But Pam Golding, chairman of the group and a “very close” friend of Kebble’s, said: “He was a buyer of property, not a seller.”

She confirmed that Kebble had made no house purchases in the past 18 months.

Golding herself works from a suite of offices inside a grand mansion that Kebble fell in love with and bought — “Monterey” in Bishopscourt — but which he subsequently declared to be an asset belonging to JCI.

Golding said: “Even now, as I look out the window, I half expect to see his car pulling up outside.”

Kebble had begun extensive renovations to his Cape Dutch mansion in Bishopscourt, “Fair Seat” — his family home, where he lived with his wife Ingrid and their four children while in Cape Town.

While in Johannesburg, Kebble stayed regularly at “Melrose House”, which he declared to be a company asset, although the Property Magazine has listed that, too, as his “private property”.

Most recent family holidays were spent at a newly bought home in Malgas, on the Breede River in Swellendam.

Industry leaders this week made it clear that Kebble was fast running out of powerful friends in the world of mining finance.

Peter Flack, former executive chairman of Randgold & Exploration and Kebble’s one-time boss, said: “I knew him incredibly well — I was very fond of him at one stage — and then I chose not to know him at all; many, many other people have taken a similar view.”

Kebble’s personal empire began in 1989, when he bought his first house — a two-bedroom property at 8 Leila Road, Claremont.

He walked in off the street and talked the estate agent into selling him the place for R160000 before other buyers even had the chance to view it.

Next — after almost doubling his money in 18 months with a sale for R280000 — he upgraded to his first mansion, in Colenso Road.

According to a bank-loan application in 2000, Kebble said he owned two Ferraris, a Porsche, a Maserati, two Mercedes sports cars, a Land Cruiser and two boats.

Martin Welz, editor of Noseweek, said Kebble’s own financial records showed his assets to have rocketed in value from R240000 in 1993 to a staggering R88-million in 2000, just seven years later.

Welz, whose magazine has conducted extensive investigations into Kebble’s business dealings, said Kebble had suddenly found himself faced with “enormous debt”, because shareholder money was no longer available to him.

Journalist Nic Dawes, who has signed a contract with Double Storey Books for a book on Kebble and his empire, said: “There is no doubt that he was trying to raise large sums of money personally in the last year and a half; he was facing mounting debt both in his businesses and personally, and his sources of funds were shrinking.

With acknowledgements to Rowan Philp and the Sunday Times.