In this article, you will get to learn about the Richest Men In South Africa And Their Net worth 2023.
South Africa is a great African nation filled with men who are exhibiting unique leadership qualities and dominating various sectors of the growing economy in the state.
1. Johann Rupert:
Overview: He is the richest person in South Africa with a net worth of 9.11 billion. The chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont.
Business background: Rupert served as a business apprentice in New York City where he worked for Chase Manhattan for two years and for Lazard Freres for three years. In 1979 his return to South Africa prompted the Rand Merchant Bank, and he occupied the position of CEO.
History/ background: Johann Rupert grew up in Stellenbosch and attended Paul Roos Gymnasium and the University of Stellenbosch. The eldest son of businessman, conservationist, and philanthropist Anton Rupert. Initially studying company law and economics he dropped out to pursue a career in business.
Origin of wealth and industry: Johann Rupert is the chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont, known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc and the South Africa-based company Remgro. The company was formed in 1988 through a spin-off of assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited). This company was formed by his father, Anton Rupert in 1940. His main office is located at Groot Paardevlei in Somerset Wes.
The extent of wealth: Johann Rupert is the richest person in South Africa and the second richest in the continent. According to 2022 estimates, he has a total of 9.4 billion USD. Rupert’s net worth has been reported to have jumped from 9 billion to 11 billion in 2021, due to an increase in the share price of his companies. According to Forbes magazine, this made him the biggest dollar gainer on the list.
Age: 1 June 1950 (age 71 years).
Place of residence: Cape Town Citizenship: South African
2. Nicholas F. Oppenheimer:
Overview: is a South African Billionaire businessman. He was the former chairman of De Beers diamond mining company and its subsidiary, the diamond trading company. With a net worth of 8.7 billion, he ranks as the second richest person in South Africa in 2022. He is the grandson of Ernest Oppenheimer, the founder of Anglo-Americans.
History/ background: Nicholas Frank Oppenheimer was born June 8, 1945, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was born to Bridget and Harry Oppenheimer, and his father was of German Jewish descent. He was enrolled in Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, earning an Oxford MA.
Business background: Nicholas has served as chair and board numerous times throughout his business career, let’s take a look at some of his positions:
a. On joining Anglo-American in 1968 Nicholas was appointed director in 1974, then deputy chairman in 1983.
b. In 1984 he was appointed deputy chairman of the Central Selling Organization.
c. In 1985 deputy chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
d. He also served as Chairman of Diamond Trading Company in 1985 and chairman of De Beers Group. (1998–2012.).
He hit the top spots after selling a 40% stake in De Beers to Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012.
Origin of wealth and industry: He is a rough diamond merchant who now owns Fireblade Aviation in Johannesburg. He is the third generation family member to own De Beers, and in 2012 he sold a 40% stake to the Anglo-American company for $5.1 billion in cash, in 2014 it was announced that he owned Fireblade Aviation which offers chartered flights.
The extent of wealth: At a net worth of $8.7 billion which he has amassed from his business and positions in De Beers he stands as the second richest person in South Africa.
Age: 8 June 1945 (age 76 years).
Place of residence: Johannesburg.
Citizenship: South Africa.
3. Christoffel Wiese:
Overview: Christoffel Wiese is a South African businessman and billionaire whose source of wealth is consumer retail.
History/ Background: Christoffel Wiese was born in Upington, South Africa. He attended Paarl boys school in the Western cape region of southern Africa. He then proceeded to Stellenbosch university to obtain a BA and LLB degree.
Business background: After graduation, Wiese practiced law for some years, then worked as a Director at Pepkor, a retail chain his parents founded in 1965. Pepkor has branches in Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and New Zealand.
He is the founder of ShopRite which started out as a chain of eight supermarkets in Cape Town that was purchased for 1 million Rand. Over the years Wiese’s wealth has increased out of proportion. This is largely due to his investment in the retail business he started, ShopRite. Currently, ShopRite operates more than 2,943 stores across Africa and employs more than 140,000 people. It’s arguably the largest retail chain in Africa. His 10.67% stake is valued at R 14bn ($910m).
He is also the PEP stores company chairman, owning a 44% share of the company. Wiese has been known to make some smart moves to improve his net worth, and holdings and expand his businesses. In no particular order let’s take a look at some of them:
A. Christoffel is the owner of ShopRite who grew the outlet from eight supermarkets to a business spread across Africa due to various acquisitions. This same method he used to acquire Senta and expand the business through franchising.
B. Wiese is a wise entrepreneur. Despite claiming to make money from retail business only, he actually makes wealth from purchasing struggling retail stores. He purchased Bazaars from South African Breweries for one Rand in 1997, inserting furniture and supermarkets to that made it grow and provide a lot of jobs to the area.
C. He has heavily invested in seven companies listed on the stock exchange market, making him a major shareholder in all of them.
D. He owns other companies: Lanzerac Manor & Winery and wine producer Lourensford Estate.
Origin of wealth and industry: His main source of wealth is consumer retail but he gains also from acquiring retail companies that are underperforming and expanding them through franchising.
The extent of wealth: His net worth stands at $5.4 billion, making him one of the richest men in South Africa.
Age: Born 10 September 1941 Christopher is 80 years old.
Place of residence: Cape Town
Citizenship: South Africa.
4. Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe:
Overview: Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is the founder and executive chairman of African rainbow minerals and at $3.6 billion USD he is the fourth richest person in South Africa.
History/Background: Was born in Pretoria, South Africa to a father who was a school teacher and small business owner. His small business has the name Sapaza shop, which was popular with black mine workers. This is where he had first-hand knowledge of mining and business. He earned a BA in Arts and Law from the University of Swaziland and the University of the Witwatersrand respectively, specializing in mining and business law.
Business background: In 1994 he became the first black African in the law firm Bowman Gilfillan, that was the same year that Nelson Mandela became president. This brought about a combined effort for the government to begin promoting black empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Motsepe later made his fortune through his various mining companies that expanded in 2004. It provides contract mining services with a very good payment system that combines a low base salary with profit sharing bonus. The group of companies is now known as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM)
Origin of wealth and industry: Motsepes’s business interests started from hanging around his father and watching him do business, but then he expanded this out of control. He purchased marginal gold mines from AngloGold when it was the most favorable time of the year.
AngloGold sold six gold mine shafts for $7.7 million. AngloGold sold the mine shafts with an agreement that he would pay his debts from future earnings of the company. That was only the beginning.
The extent of wealth: Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is wealthy, with a net worth of 3.6 billion USD he is the fourth wealthiest South African in the world.
Age: 28 January 1962 (age 60 years)
Place of residence: Johannesburg
Citizenship: South Africa.
5. Koos Bekker:
Overview: He is a South African Billionaire and businessman who is renowned for his vast background in education.
History/Background: Koos Beeker is renowned for not just being an adroit businessman but for his vast educational background. He attended Hoer Volkskool in Heidelberg, South Africa for his secondary school Education. He then earned a BA in Literature (1972) and BA in law from Stellenbosch University (1975). He went for his LLB in Witwatersrand (1978), then an MBA degree from the Columbia Administration, in 1984.
Business background: His business life started when he founded multichoice, he is also the founding director of the mobile communication company MTN. In 1997 Bekker also became CEO of Naspers.
Origin of wealth and industry: Bekker is the chairman of the media group Naspers.
He founded Multichoice and is the director of MTN.
The extent of wealth: 2.3 billion USD (2022)
Age: Born: 14 December 1952 (age 69 years).
Place of residence: Cape Town.
Citizenship: South Africa.
READ ALSO: List Of 10 Richest Women in South Africa & Net Worth
6. Michiel Le Rou:
Overview: Michiel Le Rou is a South African businessman known for finding Capitech bank in 2011.
History/Background: Michiel Le Rou grew up in South Africa and resides in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Business background: Michiel started his business career at Boland Bank in Cape Town. He then held a position as managing Director of Distillers Corporation from 1979 to 1993, and from 1995 to 1998. He was also a Managing Director of Boland PKS, NBS Boland and BoE Bank. He then went on to find Capitech bank in 2011 which focuses on the middle class in South Africa and he owns 11% shares in the company.
Origin of wealth and industry: He is the founder of Capitech Bank and has served in many managerial and directorship positions in companies. His industry is the banking industry.
The extent of wealth: His wealth is estimated at 2 billion USD.
Age: 75yrs
Place of residence: Stellenbosch
Citizenship: South Africa.
READ ALSO: Top 10 Richest Women in Africa & Net Worth
7. Stephen Saad:
Overview: Stephen Saad is the chief executive officer of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd, the leading drug manufacturer in the country.
History/background: Born to Lebanese immigrant parents and raised in Durban, South Africa, and attended the Durban high school in South Africa. He proceeded to the University of Natal where he received a Bachelor of Commerce, then to Ireland to become an accountant.
Business background: He worked in a black township for Quickmed, a drug distribution company in a black township during apartheid. He went on to sell his share in Covan Zurich for US$3 million, he then went on to co-found Aspen Pharmacare together with Gus Attridge in 1997. Aspen Pharmacare care has grown to have 26 manufacturing facilities at 18 sites on six continents and has more than 10,000 staff. He is the Chief executive and his partner is the deputy Chief executive.
Origin of wealth and industry: His wealthy life started when he sold his shares of $3 million to Covan Zurich and his wealth is gotten from the Pharmaceutical industry.
The extent of wealth: $1.4 billion.
Age: June 1964 (age 57).
Place of residence: Durban, South Africa.
Citizenship: South Africa.
8. Allan Grey:
Overview: was a South African Billionaire businessman and philanthropist.
History/Background: The particular birthplace of Allan Grey remains hidden, but his country of birth is known to be South Africa.
Business background: He founded the Cape Town-based investment management firm Allan Grey Limited in 1973. He founded Orbis Investment Management, an asset manager in 1989.
Origin of wealth: His wealth stems from the money he has made through investment management companies.
The extent of wealth: At the time of his death he had an estimated $1.5 billion net.
Age: (8 April 1938 – 10 November 2019).
Place of residence: South Africa.
READ ALSO: Top 10 Biggest Companies In South Africa
9. Ivan and Lynette Saltzman:
Overview: Ivan and Lynette Saltzman are a Billionaire couple that owns the Pharmaceutical conglomerate Dis-Chem Pharmaceutical.
History/background: Ivan and Lynette Saltzman are married with children.
Business background: Dis-chem is a Billionaire Pharmaceutical company that was started in 1978 by Ivan and Lynette Saltzman. Their first location was opened in Johannesburg. They introduced the concept of discount pharmacies in South Africa.
Origin of wealth: they are the owners of Ds-chem Pharmaceutical company worldwide.
The extent of wealth: Their combined net worth is estimated to be over a Billion dollars.
Age: Ivan is 71 years old.
Place of residence: Johannesburg, South Africa.
10. Jannie Mouton:
Overview/background: Jannie was born in 1946 in Carnarvon, South Africa. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Stellenbosch University where he studied accounting.
Business background: Mouton, at 22, started his career as a clerk at PwC. He became a chartered accountant in 1973. In 1995 Mouton was fired from Senekal, Mouton & Kitshoff a firm he co-founded. This was before he founded PSG Group.
Origin of wealth: Earnings from PSG Group.
The extent of wealth: His net worth fluctuates between $1 billion and $1.1 billion.
Age: 1946 (age 75–76).
Place of residence: Stellenbosch, South Africa.
READ ALSO: List Of Top 10 Universities In South Africa
Demzyportal Category: PEOPLE
