Patrice Motsepe Biography, Early Life and Education, Career, Recognition, Personal Life and Net Worth
Full Name: Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe
Born: 28 January 1962
Place of Birth: Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, South Africa
Occupation: Philanthropist
Spouse: Precious Moloi
Nationality: South African
Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is a South African wealthy businessman and football manager who was born on January 28, 1962.He has been head of the Confederation of African Football since March 2021. African Rainbow Minerals is his company, and he is the founder and executive chairman. The company is interested in gold, heavy metals, base metals, and platinum.
He is the non-executive chairman of Harmony Gold, the world’s 12th largest gold mining company, and the deputy chairman of Sanlam. He is also on the boards of several other companies. Motsepe was named South Africa’s richest man (not counting Elon Musk) in 2012. He had an estimated $1 billion wealth, which put him at the top of the Sunday Times’ annual Rich List. Forbes said that Motsepe was the 1,307th richest person in the world in 2020, almost a decade later. He was said to be worth US$3.1 billion.
He bought the football club Mamelodi Sundowns in 2003.
He promised to give half of his wealth to good causes when he joined The Giving Pledge in 2013.
Early Life and Education
Patrice Motsepe was born to Kgosi Augustine Motsepe, a chief of the Mmakau branch of the Tswana people. His mother had been a schoolteacher and later ran a small business as the owner of a Spaza shop that mine workers liked. Motsepe learned basic business skills from his father at this shop, where he also got to see digging for himself.
His first degree was in arts from the University of Swaziland, and his second degree was in law from the University of the Witwatersrand. He was an expert in business law and mining law.
Career
This happened in the same year that Nelson Mandela was chosen as South Africa’s first black president, 1994. He was the firm’s first black partner. While the new government started to encourage black people to be independent and start their own businesses, Motsepe started Future Mining. This company did contract mining work for the Vaal Reefs Gold mine, such as cleaning gold dust out of mine shafts, and paid its workers with a low base salary and a profit-sharing bonus.
Mining
In 1997, when the price of gold was low, he bought some small gold mines from AngloGold on good terms. AngloGold sold Motsepe six gold mine shafts for $7.7 million. This let him pay back the loan with money that the company, which is now called African Rainbow Minerals, would make in the future.
He did a number of deals like this, and Motsepe set up a business to start buying the working mines that would make him rich. He joined forces with two other business partners in 1999 to start Greene and Partners Investments.
The Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws that were put in place after the 1994 elections helped Motsepe become a leader in South Africa’s mining business. In order to be considered for a mining license, a business must have at least 26% black ownership.
Without being in charge, Motsepe has been a member of Absa Group and Sanlam since 2004.
African Rainbow Minerals merged with Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. in 2002, when it was traded on the JSE Security Exchange. The new name of the company was ARMgold. Motsepe also started African Rainbow Minerals Platinum (Proprietary) Limited and ARM Consortium Limited. These companies later split their ownership evenly with Anglo American Platinum Corp Ltd.
Motsepe was Chairman of Teal Exploration and Mining Incorporated from 2005 to 2008. As well as being the chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, Motsepe is also the non-executive chairman of Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd. and the deputy chairman of Sanlam Ltd. Motsepe has been the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of South Africa.
Financial
He started Ubuntu-Botho Investments (UBI) in 2003 and still owned 55% of it in 2019. UBI made a BEE deal with the insurance and financial services company Sanlam in 2004. The deal finished in 2014 when the debt was paid off, and UBI bought 13.5% of Sanlam. As a BEE partner, UBI has an 18.1% voting stake in Sanlam. Then, UBI created African Rainbow Capital (ARC), a company that is completely owned by UBI. Johan van Zyl, who used to be the CEO of Sanlam, is joint CEO of ARC.
ARC owns shares in more than 40 businesses, such as TymeBank, the industrial group Afrimat, the farming company BKB, the telecommunications company Rain, the high-end real estate development Val de Vie, and a small portion of Alexander Forbes, the company that manages pension funds.
Sport
Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. is owned by Motsepe. They are a Premier Soccer League team. He got a 37% share in the Blue Bulls Co. in November 2019. Remgro (37%) and Blue Bulls Rugby Union (26%), too, own a lot of shares.
It was revealed by Motsepe in November 2020 that he would be running for president of the CAF. Motsepe was elected on March 12, 2021, after all four other candidates dropped out. He was quickly accused of having help from FIFA and its President Gianni Infantino, even though FIFA was supposed to be neutral and not get involved. Infantino was trying to get the votes of Africans for his own re-election. After he became president of CAF, his son Thlopie Motsepe became head of Mamelodi Sundowns.
Advocacy
He was named interim chairman of the Black Business Council in 2011. He is also a founder member and past president of Business Unity SA (BUSA), one of South Africa’s most important business advocacy and lobbying groups.
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Recognition
The South African Best Entrepreneur Award was given to Motsepe in 2002. He was ranked 39th on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s list of Great South Africans in 2004. According to Forbes’ 2019 list of The World’s Billionaires, he was the 503rd richest person in the world in 2008. He is now the 962nd richest person in the world and the third richest South African for 2019. Forbes said in 2020 that Motsepe was the 1,307th richest person in the world.
Controversy
For the first time in public, Patrice Motsepe told US President Donald Trump that “Africa loves him” at a dinner in Davos in January 2020. The millionaire apologized, saying, “I do not have the right to speak on behalf of anyone other than myself.” This made people all over Africa very angry in response.
Personal Life
Motsepe is married to Dr. Precious Moloi, who is a doctor and fashion business owner. They have three kids. He has three siblings: Tshepo Motsepe, Bridgette Radebe, and President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Jeff Radebe.
Net Worth
Patrice Motsepe, Africa’s first black millionaire and one of South Africa’s richest men, has seen a big rise in his wealth, adding $400 million to his total over the past month.
Forbes said not long ago that his net worth was $2.3 billion as of December 10, 2023. But the most recent numbers show a big increase. At the end of Friday’s market trade, Motsepe’s net worth reached $2.7 billion.
To put it more simply, the 61-year-old businessman started the year with a net worth of $2.6 billion, which is $100 million more than what it is now.
Motsepe’s huge wealth is closely linked to the fact that he owns a 40.37% stake in African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a South African mining company that deals in iron, coal, steel, copper, gold, platinum, and other valuable metals.
Motsepe’s net worth has gone up because some of his private investments have been revalued. His shares in TymeBank, South Africa’s biggest digital bank, have had a big effect on this.