- Patrice Motsepe is a 61 year old billionaire who made his money in mining
- He is the 9th richest man in Africa as of 2023 with a net worth of $2.3 million
Patrice Motsepe was in 2008 listed as Africa’s first black billionaire by Forbes. The South African national made his wealth through mining and is the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM).
The company has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals and platinum. He is also the current president of the Confederation of African Football.
In 2012, he was named the richest man in South Africa. In September 2023, his wealth declined by $900 million. His net worth had dropped from $3.2 billion at the beginning of the year to $2.3 billion.
Here is his story as told by WoK
Patrice Motsepe Early Life and Education
Patrice was born on 28th January 1962. His father Kgosi Augustin Motsepe was chief of the Mmakau branch of the Tswana people and was a small business owner. His business was popular with the miners and it is from here that he learnt a lot about business.
He graduated from the University of Switzerland with a Bachelor of Arts and later a law degree from the University of Witwatersrand.
Business Interests
In 1994, he made history as the first black partner in the law firm Gilfillan. At the time, Nelson Mandela had just become the first black president of South Africa and a lot of blacks were being urged to do business.
It is during this time that he founded Future mining, a company that provided contract mining services, such as implementing worker remuneration systems and cleaning gold dust from inside mine shafts.
Taking advantage of the low gold prices in 1997, he bought marginal gold mines from AngloGold. They sold him six gold mine shafts for $7.7 million allowing him to repay the debt out of future earnings of the company. He then set up a company and began to purchase the operating mines.
In 1999, he founded Greene and Partners Investment in collaboration with two business associates.
In 2002 when it was listed on the JSE Security Exchange, African Rainbow Minerals joined with harmony gold mining Ltd and the company was renamed ARMgold.
In 2003, he founded Ubuntu-Botho Investments (UBI). The following year, he signed a BEE deal with Sanhalam, an insurance and financial services company. The deal ended in 2014 and UBI acquired a 13.5% stake in Sanhalam.
UBI started ARC (African Rainbow Capital), which has holdings in over forty corporates including:
- Val de Vie, a luxury property estate
- TymeBank
- Afrimat
- BKB, an agricultural company
- Rain, a telecommunications company
Football Clubs He Owns
Motsepe owns a premier soccer league club named Mamelodi Sundowns FC.
In 2019, he bought a 37% stake in the Blue Bulls Co.
In 2021, he was elected the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Other roles
In 2004, he became a non-executive director of Absa Group and Sanlam.
In 2005, he was named chairman of Teal Exploration and Mining Incorporated. He also became
- Chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments
- Non executive chairman of Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd
- Deputy chairperson of Sanhalam ltd
- President of South Africa’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Interim chairman of the Black Business Council
- Founding member and former president of Business Unity SA
