South Africa is a country with a long bitter racial struggle. The history of the country is marked with segregation and inequality, stretching from the apartheid era to modern South Africa today.
The inequality between black and white is quite clear especially when it comes to the distribution of wealth and finance.
South Africa has only one black billionaire on the Forbes list and he happens to also be the first black South African to make the list. We are going to look into what he does and how he made money.
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Meet Patrice Motsepe
Patrice Motsepe is the first black South African to make it to the Forbes list. He got listed on the Forbes billionaire list in early 2008. He is the chairman of Rainbow Minerals and also a major investor in South African football.
How Motsepe became rich
Motsepe, who is a lawyer by training got rich by investing in gold mines when the price for it was at its lowest. According to CNN, Motsepe started investing in gold mines as early as 1997. He later went on to found his own mining company named African Rainbow Minerals and became a billionaire in 2008. He was one of the key beneficiaries of the Black Economic Empowerment Policies which were put in place by the South African Government after the fall of the apartheid government.
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Motsepe’s other ventures
Motsepe is also an investor in African sports, especially football. He is the chairman of the top South African Club side, Mamelodi Sundown and also currently the new CAF president.
He also has a private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, which is focused on financing African Ideas.
What more you should know about Motsepe
- Patrice Motsepe was actually named after Patrice Lumumba, the slain fierce activist from the Republic of Congo.
- In 2013, he donated half of his wealth to charity, a move he believed was inspired by Warren Buffet.
- Motsepe is royalty, a prince from one of the clans in the Tswana Tribe, a large South African minority tribe.
