South Africa’s richest people

14 South Africans have made Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people in Africa, although Nigerian cement-king, Aliko Dangote still rules the roost.

According to Forbes, South Africa leads in Africa, with 14 people from the southern-most country appearing on its list of the 50 wealthiest people on the continent.

South Africa trumps both Nigeria (11 names) and Egypt (9 names).

However, with a net worth of $20.8 billion (R215.6 billion), self-made Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote has directed his company, Dangote Cement, to operations across Africa – cementing his spot as the wealthiest man on the continent.

South African luxury goods tycoon, Johann Rupert added $2 billion to his fortune in 2013, according to Forbes, to steal the spot as second wealthiest man in Africa from Nicky Oppenheimer and family, who have had to weather the storm of a struggling local mining sector.

Forbes’ Africa’s richest list is based on people who were born on and currently reside on the continent, thus some African-born billionaires who no longer live here have been excluded.

#	Name	Net Worth (US$)	Net Worth (ZAR)
1	Aliko Dangote	$20.8 billion	R215.6 billion
2	Johann Rupert	$7.9 billion	R81.9 billion
3	Nicky Oppenheimer	$6.6 billion	R68.4 billion
4	Nassef Sawiris	$5.9 billion	R61.1 billion
5	Mike Adenuga	$4.6 billion	R47.7 billion
6	Christo Wiese	$3.8 billion	R39.4 billion
7	Isabel dos Santos	$3.5 billion	R36.3 billion
8	Issad Rebrab	$3.2 billion	R33.2 billion
9	Mohamed Mansour	$3.1 billion	R32.1 billion
10	Othman Benjelloun	$2.8 billion	R29.0 billion

South Africa’s showing

According to Forbes, South Africa’s 14 richest have a combined net worth of $28.79 billion, and an average net worth of $2.06 billion.

South African billionaires in the slow and struggling minig sector – such as Nicky Oppenheimer, Africa Rainbow Minerals chairman, Patrice Motsepe and Assore chairman, Desmond Sacco – saw little growth in their fortunes over the past year.

However the success of Aspen Pharmacare saw its founders Stephen Saad and Gus Attridge – with the former’s fortune more than doubling to $1.5 billion (R15.5 billion) in 2013, and the latter debuting on the Forbes list with a net worth of $525 million (R5.44 billion).

The list of South Africa’s wealthiest individuals is marred by slowed transformation, according to Forbes, with only two black men, and no women at all, on the list.

ANC deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected to the position in late 2012, is widely known in the South African business community, having sat on many big-name boards and co-owned big global brands such as McDonalds and Coca Cola in their local operations.

Naspers CEO, Koos Bekker is the richest and only billionaire in the country connected to technology and media. Naspers owns a large stake in China’s Internet and messaging company, Tencent, as well as Russia’s Mail.ru.

The massive drive in these companies – added to the successes of Naspers’ pay-TV and media business – have pushed Bekker’s fortune to $1.1 billion (R11.4 billion), according to Forbes.

#	Name	Net Worth (US$)	Net Worth (ZAR)
2	Johann Rupert	$7.9 billion	R81.9 billion
3	Nicky Oppenheimer	$6.6 billion	R68.4 billion
6	Christo Wiese	$3.8 billion	R39.4 billion
11	Patrice Motsepe	$2.7 billion	R28.0 billion
19	Stephen Saad	$1.5 billion	R15.5 billion
20	Desmond Sacco	$1.4 billion	R14.5 billion
24	Koos Bekker	$1.1 billion	R11.4 billion
29	Cyril Ramaphosa	$700 million	R7.25 billion
31	Lauritz Dippenaar	$650 million	R6.73 billion
37	Gus Attridge	$525 million	R5.44 billion
38	Raymond Ackerman	$500 million	R5.2 billion
43	Gerrit Thomas Ferreira	$475 million	R4.92 billion
43	Jannie Mouton	$475 million	R4.92 billion
45	Adrian Gore	$460 million	R4.76 billion