Patrice Motsepe beats out Strive Masiyiwa, reclaims title as Southern Africa’s richest Black businessman

Omokolade Ajayi -

After several weeks of being ranked as Southern Africa’s second-richest Black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe has staged a comeback, recouping wealth losses and surging ahead of Zimbabwean telecom billionaire Strive Masiyiwa.

Motsepe now, once again, wears the crown among the region’s richest Black businesspeople.

An exclusive report by Billionaires.Africa nearly three months ago confirmed that Masiyiwa had surpassed South African mining tycoon Motsepe to become Southern Africa’s richest Black billionaire.

According to data retrieved from Forbes, as of press time on May 21, Motsepe is back on top as Southern Africa’s richest Black billionaire, with a net worth of $3.1 billion, while Masiyiwa’s net worth dropped to $2.7 billion.

Motsepe’s net worth has risen from $2.9 billion at the start of the year to $3.1 billion at the time of writing, thanks to a 6.1-percent increase in the share price of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), the South African mining and minerals company that Motsepe founded in 1997.

Motsepe, the president of the Confederation of African Football, derives a fortune of R21.5 billion ($1.37 billion) from his 39.7-percent stake in ARM, which amounts to 89,092,411 shares.

The market value of his stake in ARM has risen from $1.27 billion on Jan. 1 to $1.37 billion at the time of writing this report.

This equates to $100 million in profit for the leading South African businessman, who has stakes in major corporations through his financial firm Ubuntu-Botho Investments (UBI), which he founded in 2004.

UBI owns a 14.27-percent stake in Sanlam, a South African financial services group, with 292,471,806 ordinary shares worth R18.9 billion ($1.2 billion).

Motsepe pledged R30 million ($2.04 million) to flood victims in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, last month, which he wants to be used as soon as possible.

Last month’s devastating floods left 31,220 people unemployed in KwaZulu, according to KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala.