South Africa’s richest people mostly saw an increase in their wealth over the past year – with the country’s wealthiest man adding almost R23 million to his fortune daily.<\/p>\n
The world’s billionaires had a fantastic 2017, according to the latest Forbes Billionaire Index for 2018, increasing their combined wealth by 18% to $9.1 trillion in the 12 months to February this year.<\/p>\n
By far the most notable change was in the title of the world’s richest man, who is now Amazon.com founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, who saw his fortunes balloon by over $39 billion (R460 billion) over that period.<\/p>\n
Bezos’ growth in fortune means he earned close to R1.3 billion a day if spread over the entire year.<\/p>\n
South African billionaires<\/strong><\/p>\n For South Africa’s richest, growth was more muted by comparison – and for others, non-existent, with three South African billionaires dropping off wealth list entirely between 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n One of the biggest losers for the year is retail magnate Christo Wiese, who had in the past spent some time holding the title as South Africa’s richest man, climbing on the highs of his investments in Steinhoff International and Shoprite Holdings.<\/p>\n However, it was Wiese’s stake in Steinhoff that would ultimately cause him to fall off the latest billionaire’s ranking, with the investor’s fortunes crumbling from $5.5 billion in 2017 to as low as $750 million in 2018.<\/p>\n Losing over $4.75 billion (R56 billion) in 12 months translates to losing more than R153 million a day – though the bulk of Wiese’s losses were felt over a much shorter period.<\/p>\n