Wealth

How long it would take you to become the richest person in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·29 Mar 2017

Forbes recently published its billionaire index for 2017, showing which South Africans have the highest net worth.

The publication listed 8 dollar billionaires in South Africa, including newcomer, PSG founder Jannie Mouton, who joined familiar faces Johann Rupert, Nicky Oppenheimer, Christo Wiese and others.

Oppenheimer, heir of the Oppenheimer diamond legacy, is ranked as the richest man in South Africa, with a net worth of  $7 billion, taking the top spot from retail investor, Christo Wiese, who held the title in 2016’s official ranking.

Wiese has slipped to being ‘only’ the third richest person in the country, having seen his net worth drop from $7 billion in 2016, to $5.6 billion in 2017. Johann Rupert is ranked second, with a net worth of $6.1 billion.

When speaking in billions of dollars, the immense wealth is often lost on Joe Average, who cannot fathom what it would be like to have R90 billion to their name.

Put into perspective, the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, has a net worth of over $86 billion – an unfathomable R1.2 trillion- thirteen times higher than South Africa’s richest man.

How long it would take to become the richest

South Africa has recently revealed the levels at which it plans to introduce its minimum wage at – specifically at R20 per hour ($1.54 an hour).

The most recent salary data released by Stats SA showed that the average annual salary in South Africa across all industries was R210,200 per year – which translates to around R101 per hour ($7.78).

Using these two figures, a minimum salary worker would have to work for almost 2.2 million years just to reach Nicky Oppenheimer’s level of wealth – and the average South African would have to work for over 453,000 years to get there.

Put another way – South Africa’s richest man takes only 4 minutes to earn what the average South African earns in a year, and earns the annual minimum salary in 45 seconds.

The tables below show how many years someone earning the average minimum hourly wage and average hourly wage (2016 wages, in USD) would have to work, to become the richest person in their respective countries.

Wages are based on a 40 hour work week – or 2,080 work hours a year.

How long it would take an minimum wage earner to become their country’s richest person:

How long it would take an average wage earner to become their country’s richest person: