22 December 2006
	Diamonds & Dogs By Jamie Carr

Diamond Royal Bafokeng The pioneers have largely disappeared, the second generation are looking to cash in their chips, and now the empowerment movement enters another phase. Shareholders are bored with dishing a discount to a politico who promptly spins the stake, and rather than broadening the base of a few individuals to ensure they can fill the seat of their Bentley, the aim is to reach the people. Enter the Bafokeng, who have established themselves as the premier empowerment partner on a number of levels this year. For a start they have money, having had the good judgment to buy their ancestral land and the good luck that it contained the largest platinum deposit in the world. They have an unparalleled reputation for making their money work for the people, rather than the aristocracy, and a well-established vision to invest and develop industries to reduce the dependence on platinum by 2020. So it's little wonder that companies in search of partners have been beating a trail to the Bafokeng's professionally managed investment arm, and the deal flow has been impressive. Dog Kebble It's now over a year since the death of Brett Kebble, a tragedy for his family whatever the circumstances, but the unravelling of the extraordinary web of carnage and deceit he left behind is far from over. What is clear is that a couple of billion rand has gone walkabout, that a number of once-proud companies have been brought to their knees, and that the whiff of corruption and influence-peddling is not about to go away. Extraordinarily ill-judged comments in the aftermath of Kebble's death cast grave doubt on the senior government officials who were close to the man, and we can only hope that those who described him as a champion of empowerment do not really believe that stealing money to give bungs to government officials is the way forward for the country. There is enough litigation flying around to keep the legal fraternity happily at the trough for years, and the recent affidavit from Jackie Selebi's chum Glenn Agliotti suggests that there are plenty more surprises to come before this sorry saga is finally over. There may have been bigger frauds at public companies over the years, but the players involved and the crime puts this right up there in the hall of shame.