{"id":818695,"date":"2025-04-01T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=818695"},"modified":"2025-04-01T13:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:02:16","slug":"the-man-who-was-fired-at-48-and-then-became-one-of-south-africas-richest-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/818695\/the-man-who-was-fired-at-48-and-then-became-one-of-south-africas-richest-people\/","title":{"rendered":"The man who was fired at 48 and then became one of South Africa’s richest people"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jannie Mouton is one of South Africa\u2019s greatest success stories. After he was fired at 48, he started PSG and grew it into a financial powerhouse worth billions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johannes \u2018Jannie\u2019 Mouton was born in 1946 in Carnarvon, a small town in the Northern Cape surrounded by sheep farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After finishing school, he attended Stellenbosch University and completed a BCom Honours degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he did his articles, and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton co-founded the stockbroking firm, Senekal, Mouton & Kitshoff, with Johan Senekal and Jannie Kitshoff in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His life changed on 3 August 1995, at 48, when he was fired from Senekal, Mouton & Kitshoff, where he served as managing partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drastic action resulted from different strategic views for the company. He wanted to turn the company into a financial giant, while the other partners disagreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I wanted to turn it into an investment bank, list it to attract capital and institutional shareholders, but remain independent,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book \u2018And Then They Fired Me\u2019, Mouton says getting fired was a turning point in his life that set him on a new course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to delve deep, think a lot, learn and also make mistakes to get where I am now,\u201d Mouton wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the wisdom of hindsight, I can now say that day in 1995 was a blessing in disguise. It was a life-changing occurrence that led to the founding of PSG.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton joined forces with Chris Otto to start PSG Group in November 1995. They had a dream of building a financial services conglomerate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They bought 51% of a listed recruitment company, PAG, for R3.5 million. In 1997, they sold PAG Placements for R107 million and changed the holding company\u2019s name to PSG Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They continued with various innovative transactions, always with the primary aim of creating shareholder value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 2000s, PSG Group\u2019s model changed to resemble an investment holding company more closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSG created great South African companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, PSG Group has contributed to building great businesses such as Capitec, PSG Konsult, and Curro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec is one of their biggest successes. Mouton and Otto saw the potential in microlending, held a banking license, and had cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec founder Michiel le Roux said PSG and Mouton\u2019s active involvement in the beginning years of Capitec was crucial to the bank\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSG held a large stake in Capitec Bank, which became one of its biggest successes. Capitec was listed for less than R1 per share. Today, it is worth over R3,100 per share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2005, PSG acquired a 15% stake in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and became its largest shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, it joined forces with Sanlam and Santam to start a new direct insurance company, MiWay Insurance, in partnership with Rene Otto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also strongly focused on education. It helped start the private school provider Curro and the higher education company Stadio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During August 2020, PSG Group unbundled an effective 26.4% interest in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed Capitec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2022, PSG Group restructured by way of indivisible transactions. It unbundled PSG Konsult, Curro, Kaap Agri, CA&S, and Stadio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PSG Group repurchased all shares from existing shareholders for a cash consideration of R23.00 per share and was delisted from the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an unlisted investment holding company, PSG Group continues to serve as an incubator to build businesses and provide good shareholder returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton\u2019s success was legendary. An investment of R100,000 on PSG\u2019s first day in business grew to R390 million twenty-two years later if all dividends were reinvested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton diagnosed with early-stage dementia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In May 2018, Mouton revealed that he had been diagnosed with early-stage dementia and would be stepping down as PSG chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a voluntary statement issued to PSG shareholders, Mouton said his short-term memory does not always function as it should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sometimes forget people\u2019s names, repeat myself, or may appear somewhat disoriented. This does not happen every day, but I cannot ignore it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Mouton said he would stay on as non-executive chairman of the group, as was supported by excellent colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPSG is my life, and I have dedicated myself to the company for the past 22 years. I am incredibly proud of the businesses we have created over the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt includes Capitec, PSG Konsult, Curro, Zeder and all other investments for the future. There are so many opportunities that the PSG team is currently working on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am also proud of our ongoing contribution towards the South African economy. I still believe this country is filled with opportunity and very talented people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said PSG Group has an outstanding team that looks after the investment portfolio and other business matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could not have asked for more in my life. I have incredible children and grandchildren. I am especially grateful to my wife, Deidr\u00e9, for her incredible support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2018, after 23 years leading PSG, Mouton stepped down as non-executive chair and director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite not being involved in running PSG any longer, Jannie Mouton & family have recently been added to Forbes\u2019 real-time tracking of billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton first appeared on the Forbes World\u2019s Billionaires List in 2017 but has been absent since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as of March 2025, he has reemerged on Forbes\u2019 radar as one of the richest people in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Forbes\u2019 real-time tracking of billionaires, Mouton has a net worth of $1.6 billion, which is around R29.2 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jannie Mouton is one of South Africa\u2019s greatest success stories. After he was fired at 48, he started PSG and grew it into a financial powerhouse worth billions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":818732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22159,22157,8043,4670,21999,22160,20140,22158,4671,1310],"class_list":["post-818695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cas","tag-chris-otto","tag-curro","tag-jannie-mouton","tag-johannesburg-stock-exchange-jse","tag-kaap-agri","tag-michiel-le-roux","tag-miway-insurance","tag-psg","tag-psg-konsult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818695","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818695"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818714,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818695\/revisions\/818714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}