{"id":772357,"date":"2024-05-17T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=772357"},"modified":"2024-05-17T14:14:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T12:14:59","slug":"the-one-university-that-almost-all-south-africas-billionaires-went-to-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/772357\/the-one-university-that-almost-all-south-africas-billionaires-went-to-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The one university that almost all South Africa’s billionaires went to"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of South Africa’s six dollar-billionaires, 67% of them enrolled at Stellenbosch, while one studied abroad at one of the United Kingdom’s prestigious universities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The global billionaires club has many individuals who did not pursue higher education, including Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, according to Approved Index\u2014a UK-based business-to-business platform\u2014as many as 32% of the world’s top 100 billionaires did not complete tertiary education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those who attended university, 22% studied engineering, 12% studied business, and 19% made their fortune through tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when looking at the qualifications South Africa’s six billionaires chose to pursue, it seems a Bachelor of Laws was a favourite.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, of the six dollar-billionaires as tracked by Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, four enrolled at Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Rooi Plein, Stellenbosch University<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South African luxury goods tycoon Johann Rupert<\/strong> remains the country\u2019s richest man, with a net worth exceeding $11 billion (approx. R202 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of Compagnie Financiere Richemont enrolled in a degree in Economics and Company Law at the University of Stellenbosch before dropping out to pursue a career in business. In 2004, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in Economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Commerce from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was also awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws by The university of St. Andrews, Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer<\/strong> studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, the University of Johannesburg awarded Oppenheimer a Doctorate in Technology. The former chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines is worth $9.5 billion (approx. R174.5 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrice Motsepe<\/strong> obtained a Bachelor of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand and a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Swaziland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motsepe founded and chairs African Rainbow Minerals, which has interests in a wide range of mines, including platinum, coal, iron, copper, and gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koos Bekker<\/strong>, the former CEO of Naspers, graduated from Stellenbosch University with a degree and honours in Literature and Law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then enrolled at Wits University, where he pursued law studies. He is also an MBA graduate of Columbia University in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Motsepe, Bekker is estimated to be worth $2.9 billion (approx. R53.3 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-Founder of Capitec Bank Michiel Le Roux<\/strong> graduated from the University of Stellenbosch and received an honorary doctorate in Commerce for his pioneering work in banking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retail tycoon Christoffel Wiese, at 82, is the oldest of the six billionaires.<\/strong> He attended Stellenbosch University, <\/strong>where he received a Bachelor of Arts\/Science and LLB degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billionaire<\/th>Degree<\/th>University<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Johann Rupert<\/td>Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in Economics and Company Law<\/td>Stellenbosch University (dropped out)<\/td><\/tr>
Nicky Oppenheimer<\/td>Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Politics, Philosophy and Economics)<\/td>Oxford University<\/td><\/tr>
Patrice Motsepe<\/td>Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
Bachelor of Arts (BA) <\/td>		University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Swaziland<\/td><\/tr>
Koos Bekker<\/td>Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
MBA<\/td>		Stellenbosch University, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and Columbia Business School <\/td><\/tr>
Michiel Le Roux<\/td>Bachelor of Commerce (BCom)
Bachelor of Laws (LLB)<\/td>		Stellenbosch University<\/td><\/tr>
Christoffel Wiese<\/td> Bachelor of Arts (LLB)<\/td>Stellenbosch University<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Read: The 13 best universities in South Africa \u2013 with four among the top 500 in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the degrees South Africa\u2019s billionaires studied and at which tertiary institutions they enrolled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":685137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[1896,853,6896,4719],"class_list":["post-772357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-forbes","tag-south-africa","tag-stellenbosch-university","tag-university-of-witwatersrand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772357"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772567,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772357\/revisions\/772567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}