Wealth Index: SA's corporate elite – whiter than ever

The 50 Richest People of Inauguration City Press Wealth Index Worth a Collective R323 Billion – About the Same as the Gross Domestic Product of Mozambique and Namibia Combined in 2017

The corporate elite, unsurprisingly, is extremely white and masculine – the big surprise is that this

The City Press Wealth Index was established by Who Owns Whom from the company documents, announcements and share registries published between 2006 and 2018, as well as the disclosed remuneration of Directors of companies listed on the JSE for FY 2017, including bonuses and severance pay.

The Wealth Index reveals that:

– In 2008, there were 13 in the top 50 richest executives and board members. administration of JSE listed companies. Now there are five

– In 2008, there was a woman in the top 50: the mining executive Nonkqubela Mazwai. In 2018, there is also a woman in the top 50: Magda Wierzycka, CEO of Sygnia

– In 2008, the average age of the top 50 was 64 years old. Now he is 61 years old

– In 2016/17 Steinhoff's director, Markus Jooste, was the highest paying officer. He was winning a package of salaries and bonuses of just over 20 million rand – enough to pay 4,814 people the national minimum wage for a year; and

– The second highest-paid director, Steinhoff's chief financial officer, Andries la Grange, earned 105.18 million rand, enough for 2,504 employees at the minimum wage for one year.

– The source of the growing wealth of old white men and the elite of the company as a whole have changed a lot in the last decade.

– The assets that base the 50 best fortunes have moved decisively away from mining with the dramatic rise of financial services companies. Africa's often speculative real estate investment vehicles, real estate investment trusts, pioneered in the United States.

WHAT IS R329 BILLIONS?

The 49 richest men, and one woman, could use their collective wealth of R329 billion to pay 1 million people the new national minimum wage for eight years.

This is the equivalent of 7.1% of all retirement savings in the country, based on the national balance sheet statistics published by the SA Reserve Bank. 659003] Data from the central bank reveal that these 49 men and one woman could buy 12% of all homes in South Africa – and that their collective wealth accounts for nearly 28% of all the money that South households Africans have at the bank. 19659003] Most of the people on the list have massive personal participations in companies whose shares they have created or received as part of their executive packages.

South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world. In 2014, Stats SA reported that the Gini coefficient, which measures relative wealth,
had reached 0.65 – the highest in the world of measured countries – compared to the international average of 0.38. China, in comparison, got a score of 0.42

THE DATA

The City Press Wealth index is not perfect. Our list of wealthy South Africans is drawn exclusively from the pool of company directors listed on the five local stock exchanges, mainly the JSE.

This is a total of 2,600 people, some of whom have nothing to do with South Africa. Indeed, Ivan Glasenberg's leading position is due to his 8.3% stake in Glencore, the controversial global mining and commodities group of which he is a member.

Glasenberg's wealth was on an upward trend this year until the US Department of Justice announced that it was investigating corruption charges against the company in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela. The Glasenberg shares in Glencore were worth 84 billion rand. This month, they fell to 66 billion rand.

Glencore is a Swiss-based multinational company with South African roots and, although Glasenberg no longer resides in South Africa, he was born, raised and educated in

Christo Wiese would have been the number one if not implosion of Steinhoff International amidst the biggest accounting scandal in South African history.

Wiese almost lost Glasenberg's fortune – R65 billion – when his shares in Steinhoff collapsed late last year. Despite everything, it is still worth R33 billion, largely thanks to its shares in Shoprite.

Patrice Motsepe remains the richest black South African with a fortune of 22 billion rand. Following the general trend, the wealth of Motsepe consists mainly of shares of the Sanlam financial services company. The gold mines that made it rich play a secondary role in its wealth.

Other familiar faces in the top 50 include FirstRand co-founder Laurie Dippenaar, and business magnates Johann Rupert and Koos Bekker. The wealth of Bekker is due to the actions of Naspers, the ultimate owner of City Press. There are several missing billionaires on the wealth index – a disadvantage of relying on JSE data when many fortunes are in the form of private unlisted companies.

Wendy Appelbaum is the richest woman in South Africa.

Douw Steyn, the insurance mogul who literally built a city bearing his name, was not found

. The baron of the reclusive property, Jonathan Beare, owner of Buffet Investment Services, is considered one of the best. the largest private landowners in the country, but you would have a hard time finding a picture of the man, let alone an easily measurable list of his belongings.

We certainly miss several billionaires who are simply not administrators

Where all the blacks passed

Many of those who were in the top 50 in 2008 have disappeared, wealth intact, because they resigned from their positions as directors.

This includes Resident Cyril Ramaphosa, who was number 19 in 2008 with 1.1 billion rand in listed shares.

Lazarus Zim was number 18 in 2008 but number 71 this year, as he resigned from the boards of Sanlam and Mvelaphanda Resources. ] The former boss of MTN, Sifiso Dabengwa, is probably worth more than the R1.8 billion MTN titles he owned in 2008, but he no longer sits on the board of directors, so he is invisible for the index of wealth

. Sekunjalo of Iqbal Survé is the largest shareholder of African Empowerment Equity Investments and its listed subsidiary, Ayo Technology Solutions.

City Press calculates that this should get him into the top 50, but Survé himself is not a director of any company

Regarding the people we have on the company press index of the city we only have information on the value of their actions. to which they have a council seat. We do not know what other shares or bonds they own, nor how much property they have, nor how much money they have hidden in bank accounts. We also do not know how much they are paid for other work that they do outside of listed companies where they have board seats. We also do not know how much debt they have ..

* To learn more about the City Press Wealth Index, read the City Press newspaper today.

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