Richest People in South Africa – Top 10 Wealthiest Men Billionaire List

Nicky Oppenheimer tops this list of “South African Billionaires”. His major chunk of fortune comes from diamond business. His grandfather took over a diamond firm back in 1927. Its name is De Beers and it is involved in mining, exploration and marketing of diamonds all over the world. However, he sold out 40% stocks to a firm named Anglo American and thus ended the decades of family ownership of largest diamond company in the world.  He resides in Johannesburg. In the list of billionaires of the world, he manages to find a spot each year.

#2) Christoffel Wiese

Net Worth: $5.8 Nillion

Popularly known as “Christo”, Mr. Wiese is the second richest person in his country.His net worth is nearly more than the GDP of other poor African countries.  According to Forbes. He is the largest shareholder of retailing firm Shoprite and this makes him one of the richest people in South Africa. He did attend Stellenbosch University.  Once he was detained at an airport in London for carrying too much cash money with him. He carried around $1 million in cash, which was stuffed in a suit-case.

#3) Johann Rupert

Net Worth: $5.3 Billions

With fortune of Billions, Mr. Johann Rupert is one of the richest South African. Residing in Cape Town, South Africa, he runs a business of luxury goods. His father was also a businessman. He started luxury goods company Richemont in the year 1988 and then took it to new heights. He is the chancellor of the University of Stellenbosch.  His company is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. His online casinos were in much spotlight for pulling ads worth millions from a British magazine. It happened that the magazine said offensive things about Afrikaans language and Mr Rupert took it seriously. He removed all the ads of Richemont from them.

#4) Allan Gray – One of the Richest People in South Africa

Net Worth: $1.6 Billion

This rich South African hardly gives any interviews and is extremely private about his life. Hardly giving any poses for a camera or attending meetings. He is an investor and owns the largest South African investment company. He graduated from Harvard Business School and worked at Fidelity investments which is famous for people like Peter Lynch. In the year 2005, this South African billionaire gave away $130 million for the cause of  higher education and budding African entrepreneur. Allan Gray resides in Hamilton, Bermuda but he is a citizen of South Africa.

#5) Koos Bekker

Net Worth: $1.4 Billion

If you have heard about Naspers then you may be knowing Koos Bekker. His well-timed investments and aggressive business policies have helped in transforming Naspers from a small-time newspaper to a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate. Bekker started a pay-television company called m-Net and in later years of its formation, he got it listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. However, later he got it de-listed and merged it with Naspers of which he became CEO. This year, he is going to step-down as CEO to concentrate more on his life and family. Investors and financecritics have lauded his investments which have been in a never-heard companies and which went on to become big. Through Naspers, Bekker invested in growing companies in economies like China, India, Brazil and South Korea. He is tipped as next media mogul

 #6) Stephen Saad

Net Worth: $1.33 Billion

Having made his wealth entirely self-made, Stephen Saad’s company is tipped to be the next big company from the African continent. During his 20s, he started and ran a few small firms which were in pharmaceutical business. Of which, he sold his share in one of them for 3 million and became a millionaire overnight back in the late 1990s. Later, he started another pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare which is today the largest generic drug-maker in the whole Africa. A surge in stock prices of his company made his net worth enough to make him qualify for Forbes Richest South Africans.

#7) Patrice Motsepe – Richest Black Man in South Africa

Net Worth:  $1.1 Billion

Being the richest black man in his homeland, Patrice Motsepe”s net worth is comparable to some of the poorest European countries. His wealth comes from the firm which he started. He founded African Rainbow Minerals which are involved in mining and metal explorations in Africa. The only black billionaire from South Africa, Patrice’s wealth is self-made. He has joined the Giving Pledge and has promised to give wealth generated from half of his fortune to charity. Giving Pledge is an effort by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who are richest Americans.

Desmond Sacco

Net Worth: No more a billionaire but Sacco is still one of the multi-millionaires in South Afrifca.

Sacco took over the reins of Assore Group from his father Guido Sacco who founded it. For the first time, he managed to make it to the Forbes Billionaire list after the stocks of his company surged on the stock exchange. Desmond studied Geology from university of South Africa and joined his father’s mining company. And like Patrice Motsepe, he is another mining magnate from this once British colony. Sacco is fond of playing Cricket and other sport of Hockey. He spends his spare time playing Hockey and sometimes Cricket.

A lot of changes have taken place since Forbes first starting listing the world’s billionaires. Initially, no one manages to get a spot. But later on slowly, one by one, today few South Africans are now joining the ranks of other billionaires. With a developing economy and many good years ahead, the number of billionaires is damn sure going to increase and so is the GDP of this developing nation and the most developed in the African continent.