Patrice Motsepe, the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals became a billionaire in 2008. He was born on the 28th of January 1962 in South Africa, to a school teacher turn businessman, Augustine Motsepe.
Growing up, Patrice learned basic business principles from his father, as well as first-hand exposure to mining.
After bagging a bachelor of arts from the University of Swaziland and a law degree from the University of Witwatersrand, he became the first black partner at law firm Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg and then started a contracting business doing mine scut work.
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A few years later, 1997 to be precise, Patrice purchased marginal gold mines at a favorable cost as the price of gold was low at that time. He eventually started a string of purchases by buying operating mines, which eventually led to his optimal wealth.
In 2016, he launched a new private equity firm, ‘African Rainbow Capital’ which basically focused on investing in Africa. Patrice also is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club and has a stake in Sanlam which is a listed financial services firm.
As of August 2020, according to the f Patrice’s net worth is estimated to be $2.1 billion U.S dollars.
He is currently the interim chairman of the Black Business Council, a founding member and former president of one of South Africa’s most influential business advocacy and lobby group Business Unity SA.
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Patrice has received quite a number of recognitions through the years which includes; South Africa’s Best Entrepreneur Award in 2002. In 2004, he was voted 39th among the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s Great South Africans. Furthermore, in 2008, he was reported as the 503rd-richest person in the world, according to the Forbes 2019 list of The World’s Billionaires, then ranked as the 962nd-wealthiest person in the world, and the third-wealthiest South African for 2019.