Publication: Mail and Guardian Issued: Date: 2006-01-06 Reporter: Robert Kirby Reporter:

Double Whammy Made In Heaven

 

Publication 

Mail and Guardian
Date

2006-01-06

Reporter

 Robert Kirby

Web Link

www.mg.co.za

 

Two of South Africa’s most intriguing murder/suicide cases lie closer to being resolved, due to information gathered from documents that have come into the hands of this publication in recent days.

The documents throw light on the unexplained deaths of two high-profile post-apartheid figures with hitherto undisclosed links to the state security apparatus of both the old and new South African regimes, and suggest international intrigue at the highest levels in the battle to control South Africa’s lucrative sporting, arms and recreational industries.

Former cricket captain Hansie Cronje died in supposedly cloudy weather in an aircraft crash in 2002 while under a significantly symbolic cloud of investigation and approbation for his role in the “match-fixing scandal” of the Indian “friendly” Test series in 2000.

Mining magnate and flamboyant, piano-playing patron of the arts Brett Kebble died last year, when his luxury car hit a bridge over Johannesburg’s notorious N1 highway, apparently after he had been shot at by a group of tramps from Lesotho who did not even manage to steal his briefcase, which, when later retrieved by the Scorpions at a panel beater’s in Wynberg, turned out to have contained cash, uncut diamonds from Angola, and incriminating documents in the Zuma/Shaik case.

The names of these two high-profile South African patriots, Kebble and Cronje, have never before been linked in any substantial way. It is known that they met briefly in the VIP enclosure at Rawalpindi when Kebble happened to attend the opening match in the fateful Indian series that later turned out to have been rigged.

The two were also photographed shaking hands at a cocktail party during a classical piano recital by the exiled Indian sitar player Meganathri Gore at the presidential residence Mahlambandlobvu in Pretoria in 2002 ­ just weeks before Cronje’s fatal plane crash.

Until now, no significance has been attached to these two brief encounters.

Cricketing hero Cronje died when the freight aircraft he was illegally travelling in reportedly “ran into mountains” while attempting to land in “bad weather” at George airport in the Western Cape.

Cronje’s “perfectly preserved” corpse was discovered the next day by tourist sherpas from Nepal on a “busman’s holiday” in South Africa’s relatively pleasant and sunny mountaineering conditions ­ “a welcome break from those bloody Germans in the Himalayas”, as their leader, Sherpa Ten-Ten Singalong, said from his hotel in Plettenberg Bay, where he was recovering from the grisly ordeal.

The circumstances of Cronje’s fatal plane crash have always been shrouded in mystery. After recovery of the aircraft’s “black box”, aviation experts from Australia and California dubbed the information contained in it “laughable and unexplainable”.

“They’d have had to move those mountains a whole lot closer to George airport to make this make sense,” said American expert Hortense Higgins.

“Or move the airport closer to the mountains for the night,” added Australian expert Bruce Higgins. “The pilot had plenty of room to do a simple turn if his first approach had been aborted, even in bad weather. Either that, or the pilot was in the toilet at the time.”

This had led to earlier speculation that Cronje himself had been at the controls when the accident occurred, and had deliberately run the aircraft into the mountains to avoid further investigation by the International Cricketing Council ­ of which Brett Kebble happened to be an ex officio advisory member.

The unexpected killing of mining heir Kebble in Johannesburg just three years later gave rise to further speculation of a bizarrely choreographed double suicide.

Did Kebble have something to hide, apart from millions of disappeared share certificates and unpayable debts? Was there more to that briefly captured, smiling handshake at Mahlambandlobvu than met the eye?

Looking back on the now notorious Indian match series, how had Kebble come to be a special guest of the highly placed Indian businessmen who, it later transpired, had paid Cronje handsomely to throw the match in favour of the unseeded, untrained, dark-horse cricket team from Dubai? Why did Kebble leave hurriedly “to attend to urgent business back home” before the match was over?

And, finally, how was it that the leading sherpa who discovered Cronje’s corpse in the ill-fated aircraft in the mountains at George in the Western Cape also happened to have been an honoured guest at that same VIP enclosure at Rawalpindi so many years before, when Kebble and Cronje had supposedly met for the first time? Why was he always smiling?

Both the Indian and South African governments, while calling strenuously for a thorough investigation of both sides of this affair, have denied any connection between the two mysterious deaths, and any involvement at a higher level.

But, eyebrows were raised at a recent press corps briefing at Waterkloof Airbase when Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, responding to an innocent question about South Africa’s €3-billion arms sales to India in support of that country’s claims against Pakistan over Kashmir, spontaneously brought up the supposed business relationship between Cronje and Kebble, denying that both he, Jonathan Moyo, Saki Macozoma and media mogul Anant Singh had any knowledge of it, and did not expect to have any in the future.

At the time of going to press, lawyers for Not the Mail & Guardian have advised that no further documents in our possession should be released to the public. ­ © Not the Mail & Guardian 2005

Not the Mail & Guardian is Robert Kirby's startling and savagely satirical parody of the Mail & Guardian newspaper. Any similarity between real people and characters portrayed here is anything but coincidental

With acknowledgements to Robert Kirby and the Mail and Guardian.


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