Today, we bring to you the Richest Men In South Africa 2022.
South Africa is one of the biggest economies, the most industrialized, technologically advanced, and most diversified economy in Africa as more and more people emerge from there being masters in their profession.
People from South Africa had excelled in their various professions as they can boost certain wealth acquired from their profession.
You can check one of our posts about the Richest comedians in South Africa to know more about how the people of that country had thrived over the years.
Also, South Africa is home to some of the most influential men who boast wealth and riches that is enviable by any nation. These are the richest men in South Africa.
Over the last couple of decades, the economy of South Africa has seen a sharp rise, driven by the intensive industrialization policies adopted in the country.
At the heart of this industrialization are men with innovation and entrepreneurial skills that have effectively changed to scope of the economy of the nation.
Today, most of these men are represented among the richest men in South Africa, and no one can contest their position on it.
These men have made valuable impacts in different sectors of the economy, unmatched by any other individual across the country.
Through this article, we will have a look at each of the people who earned a place among the richest men in South Africa, and how they came about to wield such a huge amount of wealth and influence.
The 10 Richest Men In South Africa 2022
| Rank | Richest Men In South Africa 2022 | Estimated Net Worth |
| #1 | Nicky Oppenheimer | $8 billion |
| #2 | Johann Rupert | $7. 1 billion |
| #3 | Patrice Motsepe | $2.9 billion |
| #4 | Koos Bekker | $2.9 billion |
| #5 | Michiel Le Roux | $1.9 billion |
| #6 | Stephen Saad | $1.7 billion |
| #7 | Allan WB Gray | $1.5 billion |
| #8 | Christoffel Wiesse | $1.3 billion |
| #9 | Jannie Mouton | $1.2 billion |
| #10 | Lauritz Dippennaar | $850 million |
10. Lauritz Dippennaar – $850 million
Lauritz “Laurie” Dippenaar is an entrepreneur and a self-made billionaire who started his business career right from the bottom and built an excellent business portfolio and career which has taken him to the very top of the South African food chain.
Born and bred in South Africa, Lauritz started his career as a qualified accountant at KPMG after the completion of his Master of Commerce degree at the University of Pretoria.
After working in several positions for different organizations, including the Industrial development corporations of South Africa for over 3 years, Lauritz decided its time to create his own business brand.
This led him to the creation of Rand Consolidated Investing company alongside partners like Gerrit Ferreira and Paul Harris.
This company is focused on business and investment banking which was just gaining roots in the country at the time.
9. Jannie Mouton – $1.2 billion
Jannie is among the richest men in Africa not just because of his talents and eye for Business, but also for his tenacity and a relentless drive to make it big.
This is because Jannie never had the smoothest business career, however, he managed to put all the difficulties behind him to focus on ways to be better at what he loves doing.
His career as a business owner started while working as an articled clerk at PwC.
After gaining his Bachelor’s degree from Stellenbosch University, he proceeded to earn qualifications that helped him become a qualified Chartered accountant in 1973.
Despite securing a job as managing partner with Stockbroker Senekal, due to reasons that were unknown, he was sacked. This led him to set up his own company known as the PSG group.
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8. Christoffel Wiesse – $1.3 billion
Christoffel Wiesse earned his place among the richest men in South Africa through his expertise in consumer retail.
After earning his Bachelor’s degree in the university, Christoffel moved to practice law for a few years at Pepkor which was a discount clothing brand established with the support of his parent.
He served as the director of the company before leaving his role.
Through his expertise in consumer retail, Christoffel helped Shoprite start out a chain of supermarkets around South Africa.
This chain of supermarkets grew in value and net worth from $122,000 to a multi-billion dollar business known around the world.
The business grew due to his strategic planning and expansion into new locations by buying existing and struggling retail businesses.
7. Allan WB Gray – $1.5 billion
Allan William Buchanan Gray is one prudent billionaire who made a fortune from a series of investments that has huge value today.
After completing his studies at Harvard University in America, Allan decided to work for an asset management firm known as Fidelity management and research in America.
After spending almost a decade at the company, he was recognized as a successful contrarian investor during the economic crisis of 1962.
Allan decided to set up his own company in his home in South Africa and then relocated in 1973.
His new company was named Allan Gray Ltd and started a business with investment counseling.
Eventually, he decided to move the portfolio of the business into a full-blown investment and management company.
He also created another company known as Orbis Investment management to help manage the international operations of the company.
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6. Stephen Saad – $1.7 billion
Stephen is one of the most recognized billionaires in South Africa, as he owns the largest producer of generic medicines in the whole of Africa, Aspen Pharmacare.
Stephen launched his career in the pharmaceutical industry in a prescription drug distribution company known as Quickmed.
These companies were focused on black townships during the apartheid.
A few years later, Stephen decided to sell his shares in Covan Zurich to help him set up his personal business.
The total worth of his shares at the time was estimated to be valued at $3.5 million.
To set up his company known as Aspen Pharmacare, he had to do a joint venture with Gus Attridge who was also tagged as the co-founder. While Stephen served as the CEO of the company, Gus was tagged as the deputy CEO.
5. Michiel Le Roux – $1.9 billion
Michiel is not much of a popular figure in South Africa and most people do not know he is behind the creation of one of the biggest banks in South Africa, Capitec Bank.
This bank was set up in late 2001 to help introduce a better form of banking and make transactions seem easier between business owners and customers.
Michiel’s earnings have brought him so far among the richest men in South Africa, as his net worth keeps growing with time.
Despite leaving his role as the CEO of the company in 2004, Michiel still serves as the Chairman of the board and owns as much as an 11% stake in the company he established.
Before establishing the Capitec bank, he once worked at a small regional bank in Hinterland for almost half a decade.
His successful time over there helped him recognize ways to improve the banking sector and also earn enough to create his own bank.
4. Koos Bekker – $2.9 billion
Jacobus Petrus “Koos” Bekker is a billionaire. Thanks to his versatility in business.
As one of the richest men in South Africa, Koos has established and nurtured a string of businesses from low worth to high net worth.
After spending a couple of years in advertising for numerous brands, Koos decided to earn an MBA degree at the Columbia business school.
During the defense of his project paper, he met a few friends with whom they decided to establish Pay television services.
The Pay Television would later be known as M-net.
This company has subsidiaries like MultiChoice which has grown to be the biggest pay television in Africa.
Today, the services of this company are in over 130 countries across the world.
The rapid growth of this service across Africa directly affected the net worth of Koos and other individuals related to the creation of that company.
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3. Patrice Motsepe – $2.9 billion
Patrice is an entrepreneur who made billions out of his investments in gold mining.
In what started out to be a small-scale business franchise, Motsepe’s business acumen was able to help develop strategies that helped scale to business to greater heights.
Being a valuable industry in South Africa, a growth in his business saw a significant rise in his net worth. Today, he is one of the richest men in South Africa.
Motsepe took the opportunity of a drop in prices of Gold to purchase marginal gold Mines from AngloGold.
At the time, he was able to start with a total of 6 min shafts valued at a whopping $8 million at the term.
Though he acquired these shafts on loan, he swiftly repaid the loans in no time. After paying off his debt, Motsepe creates the mining company known as the African Rainbow Minerals.
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2. Johann Rupert – $7. 1 billion
Johann launched his business venture as an apprentice at Chase Manhattan for a couple of years.
He also served as an apprentice at the Lazard Freres for over 3 years. After spending a total of 5 years as an apprentice in America, Johann felt he has acquired enough knowledge to start his own business brand.
He then decided to return to South Africa and create the Rand Merchant Bank.
In a strategic move to scale the bank to greater heights, Johann decided to merge the Rand Merchant bank and the newly created Rand Consolidated Investments to form RMB Holdings.
In 1988, he also established the Compagnie Financiere Richemont and was appointed Non-Executive Director of Rothmans International plc.
His achievements that year earned him “Businessman of the Year” by the Sunday Times.
Today, his business portfolios are worth in excess of billions of dollars and he is confidently placed among the richest men in South Africa.
1. Nicky Oppenheimer – $8 billion
Nicky is at the peak of the richest men in South Africa with a sizeable net worth of a staggering $8 billion.
This figure would have been so much more assuming the business tycoon did not retire a couple of years ago.
His career reached a high point when he was appointed as the director of the Anglo American in 1974, after working for over 6 years for the company.
His achievements in his role as director helped him earn the deputy Chairman role at the company in 1983.
After spending over 17 years as the deputy Chairman, Nicky decided to call his time at the company by resigning to become a non-executive director of the company.
Nicky then took the role of a deputy Chairman at the Diamond trading company and also the Deputy Chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
After spending a few years in both diamond mining companies, he became the Chairman of both companies.
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Richest Men In South Africa (Summary)
This is a quick outline of the richest men in South Africa
- Nicky Oppenheimer
- Johann Rupert
- Patrice Motsepe
- Koos Bekker
- Michiel Le Roux
- Stephen Saad
- Allan WB Gray
- Christoffel Wiesse
- Jannie Mouton
- Lauritz Dippennaar
The richest men in South Africa enumerates the concentration of wealth and the size of the economy of the African country.
Without any doubt, South Africa is one of the most blessed countries as it has got the natural resources and human resources to drive its economy forward, something which many other African countries lacked today.
The net worth of each individual on this list of richest men in South Africa shows just how much potential and wealth is untapped within the South African market.
Ultimately, there is nothing stopping the huge net worth of these individuals from growing exponentially in years to come.
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