While Forbes has ranked only five South Africans dollar billionaires in its 2019 Rich List, when counting in local currency, that list becomes significantly longer.<\/p>\n
The past 12 months have seen a big drop in private wealth held in South Africa, with a combination of a poor economy and capital flight leading to a decline of around 10% to $649 billion.<\/p>\n
The 2019 South African Wealth Report by New World Wealth<\/a><\/strong> revealed that the overall number of dollar millionaires across the country has dropped dramatically over the past year, from 43,600, to 39,200, while the country has lost 130 residents with $10 million or more over the same period.<\/p>\n South Africa is home to five dollar billionaires, though NWW noted that an additional nine South African born billionaires have left the country over the years – so, in total 14 South African born individuals could be classified as billionaires.<\/p>\n There are also 94 centi-millionaires ($100 million+) in South Africa, the group said – these are individuals who are comfortably classified as rand billionaires (R1.4 billion+).<\/p>\n South Africa’s 5 richest people<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Forbes’ annual ranking of dollar billionaires, diamond magnate Nicky Oppenheimer is the richest man in the country with a net worth of $7.3 billion.<\/p>\n He is joined by familiar names – such as luxury goods boss Johann Rupert ($5.5 billion), mining and minerals tycoon Patrice Motsepe ($2.4 billion), media mogul Koos Bekker ($2.3 billion), and Capitec founder Michiel le Roux ($1.2 billion).<\/p>\n These are the five billionaires likely highlighted in the NWW report.<\/p>\n Forbes’ rankings are based on publicly-available information, counting the assets and investments of each individual listed – however, as a dollar-billionaire list, the cut-off for consideration is at R14 billion in local currency.<\/p>\n Several other sources help provide more in-depth insight into the country’s super wealthy individuals.<\/p>\n The 2019 UK Sunday Times Rich List pointed to several local billionaires who call the United Kingdom home, and who aren’t tracked by Forbes – including South African\/Swazi businessman Nathan Kirsh, Manfred Gorvy, Douw Steyn among others.<\/p>\n Steyn, for example, is listed as having a net worth of R16.7 billion, which should put him on the Forbes Billionaire list; however, his fortune is not held in publicly-listed companies, making him ineligible.<\/p>\n Other sources for individuals with rand billionaire status includes information tucked away in shareholder reports on JSE-listed companies.<\/p>\n A recent example would be Dis-Chem’s co-founders, Ivan and Lynette Saltzman, who together control a 52.7% stake in the R22 billion company, making them worth a combined R12 billion.<\/p>\n Another under-the-radar billionaire is Cartrack CEO Zak Calisto, who indirectly holds 68% of the R5.8 billion company’s shares, putting his stake at R3.87 billion.<\/p>\n Rand billionaires<\/strong><\/p>\n Entrepreneur Magazine has published its latest ranking of South Africa’s richest people. The list is based on the latest-available information from the last three years (2017-2019), and includes the names of some people who have taken a financial knock over that period, such as former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste (said to be worth R5.6 billion) and Christo Wiese, who has suffered financially during Steinhoff saga.<\/p>\n Wiese lost his dollar billionaire status in 2018 in the wake of the scandal, but according to CNBC Africa<\/a><\/strong>, the retail investor has managed to reclaim his spot among the world’s super-rich, with a net worth around $1.1 billion (R15.6 billion).<\/p>\n The table below outlines South Africa’s billionaires on record<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It includes an up-to-date list of the local billionaires on Forbes<\/a><\/strong>, along with data drawn from the UK\u2019s Sunday Times Rich List<\/a><\/strong>, and Entrepreneur Mag<\/a><\/strong> (indicated with a *).<\/p>\n\n\n
\n Name<\/th>\n Net Worth<\/th>\n Data Source<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n Nicky Oppenheimer<\/td>\n R103.2 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Johann Rupert<\/td>\n R77.8 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Ivan Glasenberg<\/td>\n R67.9 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Koos Bekker<\/td>\n R32.5 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Patrice Motsepe<\/td>\n R33.9 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Allan Gray<\/td>\n R24.8 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Michiel le Roux<\/td>\n R17.0 billion<\/td>\n Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Douw Steyn<\/td>\n R16.7 billion<\/td>\n Sunday Times Rich List<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Stephen Saad<\/td>\n R16.3 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Christo Wiese<\/td>\n R15.6 billion<\/td>\n CNBC\/Forbes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Jannie Mouton<\/td>\n R13.6 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Ivan and Lynette Saltzman<\/td>\n R12.0 billion<\/td>\n BusinessTech<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mark Shuttleworth<\/td>\n R9.3 billion<\/td>\n Sunday Times Rich List<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Laurie Dippenaar<\/td>\n R8.5 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Raymond Ackerman<\/td>\n R6.9 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Adrian Gore<\/td>\n R6.7 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cyril Ramaphosa<\/td>\n R6.4 billion<\/td>\n Investing.com<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n GT Ferreira<\/td>\n R5.8 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Gus Attridge<\/td>\n R5.7 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Markus Jooste<\/td>\n R5.6 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Wendy Appelbaum<\/td>\n R4.7 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Desmond Sacco<\/td>\n R4.7 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Giovanni Ravazzotti<\/td>\n R4.7 billion*<\/td>\n Entrepreneur Mag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Zak Calisto<\/td>\n R3.9 billion<\/td>\n BusinessTech<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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