{"id":856246,"date":"2026-04-08T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=856246"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:30:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:30:27","slug":"south-africa-officially-has-a-new-dollar-billionaire-worth-r28-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/856246\/south-africa-officially-has-a-new-dollar-billionaire-worth-r28-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa officially has a new dollar billionaire – now worth R28 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Owner and president of Le Creuset, Paul van Zuydam, has been ranked among South Africa\u2019s dollar-billionaires on Forbes\u2019 annual rankings<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Van Zuydam has been tracked by Forbes in its live rankings since December 2025, his debut in the annual ranking marks his official position among the 3,428 dollar billionaires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The live rankings track daily fluctuations in wealth among the world’s entrepreneurs, investors and heirs, often seeing people dip in and out of billionaire status as markets shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual Forbes ranking, however, serves as the key snapshot of extreme wealth, with those ranked solidified in the status until the next year’s listing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his debut, Van Zuydam joins the seven other familiar faces who rank among South Africa’s billionaires, including investor Jannie Mouton, who was added to the list in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading as South Africa’s richest man is Johann Rupert, who retains the title with a net worth of approximately $16.1 billion (R264 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investor and heir saw a massive $2.1 billion gain on his net worth over the past year, much higher than anyone else on the South African ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rupert is followed by frequent number-two, Nicky Oppenheimer, whose net worth didn’t grow as significantly over the past year, adding $200 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining and minerals magnate Patrice Motsepe reclaimed the third position in the country, moving ahead of media tycoon Koos Bekker, who dropped to fifth, below Capitec founder Michiel le Roux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mouton climbed ahead of retail businessman Christo Wiese, with Van Zuydam making his entry at $1.7 billion (R28 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, all of South Africa’s billionaires saw their wealth grow over the past 12 months, adding at least $7.7 billion (R126 billion) to their collective wealth, bringing their total to $37 billion (R734 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Rupert, Le Roux saw the largest wealth increase, adding $1.6 billion to his net worth, followed by Motsepe (+$1.3 billion) and Mouton (+$1.2 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/strong><\/td>Billionaire<\/strong><\/td>2025<\/strong><\/td>2026<\/strong><\/td>Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
178<\/td>Johann Rupert<\/td>$14.0 billion<\/td>$16.1 billion<\/td>+$2,100 million<\/mark><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
304<\/td>Nicky Oppenheimer<\/td>$10.4 billion<\/td>$10.6 billion<\/td>+$200 million<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
984<\/td>Patrice Motsepe<\/td>$3.0 billion<\/td>$4.3 billion<\/td>+$1,300 million<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
1137<\/td>Michiel Le Roux<\/td>$2.2 billion<\/td>$3.8 billion<\/td>+$1,600 million<\/mark><\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
1189<\/td>Koos Bekker<\/td>$3.4 billion<\/td>$3.6 billion<\/td>+$200 million<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
1560<\/td>Jannie Mouton<\/td>$1.5 billion<\/td>$2.7 billion<\/td>+$1,200 million<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
2177<\/td>Christo Wiese<\/td>$1.5 billion<\/td>$1.9 billion<\/td>+$400 million<\/mark><\/td><\/tr>
2386<\/td>Paul van Zuydam<\/td><$1.0 billion<\/mark><\/td>$1.7 billion<\/td>+~$700 million<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Total<\/strong><\/td>$37.0 billion<\/strong><\/td>$44.7 billion<\/strong><\/td>+$7.7 billion*<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
*minimum based on estimates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

100-year-old legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Van Zuydam’s fortunes are tied to the luxury Le Creuset brand, which has grown into a R14-billion-a-year cookware giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brand was founded in 1925 in the small French town of Fresnoy-le-Grand, strategically located along major shipping routes for iron, coke, and sand.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company stood out early by applying colourful enamel to cast-iron cookware, first showcased in its now-famous \u201cVolcanic Flame\u201d orange pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the mid-1980s, however, the company\u2019s success had unravelled. Family infighting and rising debt left Le Creuset financially weakened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, Van Zuydam, then chairman and CEO of homeware group Prestige, caught wind of the troubles and, convinced of the brand\u2019s potential, negotiated a deal to buy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Zuydam resigned from Prestige, obtained French government approval, and personally purchased Le Creuset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under his ownership, Le Creuset was rebuilt around its core strengths. Capacity was doubled, output rose to more than 20,000 products a day, and the company expanded globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also diversified into ceramics and other cookware while keeping cast-iron production in France. Today, it generates over $850 million (R14 billion) in annual revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of Le Creuset has cemented Van Zuydam\u2019s position among the world’s richest people, ranking as the 2,386th wealthiest person in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among South Africa’s billionaires, Van Zuydam, at 87, is also the oldest, with Christo Wiese, three years his junior, at 84.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Owner and president of Le Creuset, Paul van Zuydam, has been ranked among South Africa\u2019s dollar-billionaires on Forbes\u2019 official annual rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":856261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9880],"tags":[9058,1896,24415,25150],"class_list":["post-856246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wealth","tag-billionaire","tag-forbes","tag-le-creuset","tag-paul-van-zuydam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856246","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=856246"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856307,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856246\/revisions\/856307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}