Six South Africans on Forbes Real-Time Billionaire list

The Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list for 2024 includes six South Africans who all grew their fortunes last year, while it also shows that Elon Musk is the richest person in the world with $416.1 billion, followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with $233.1 billion and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg with $212.8 billion.

A team at Forbes compiles the list by estimating the value of the billionaires’ assets, including private companies, real estate and art, discounting the value when documentation is not available. It does not include the money they have in the bank.

Forbes only includes people with a net worth of more than $1 billion (R19 billion.) The latest list was compiled based on the billionaires’ net worth between 1 January 2024 and 10 January 2025.

The six South Africans on the list are Johann Rupert, chair of Remgro, diamond and mining giant Nicky Oppenheimer and his family, Naspers chair Koos Bekker, Patrice Motsepe, chair of African Rainbow Minerals, Capitec founder Michiel Le Roux and businessman Christo Wiese. Musk is not listed as South African.

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Number 203: Johann Rupert and family with $11.2 billion

Johann Rupert and family is at number 203 on the list with $11.2 billion. He is chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont, best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc. He owns 7% of diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 27% of Reinet, an investment holding company based in Luxembourg. He started 2024 with $10.3 billion.

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Number 269: Nicky Oppenheimer and family with $9.5 billion

Nicky Oppenheimer and family sit at number 269 with $9.5 billion. He is heir to the De Beers diamond fortune, and sold his 40% of the firm to mining group Anglo-American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012. He was the third generation of his family to run De Beers and took the company private in 2001. He started 2024 with $8.3 billion.

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Number 1 214: Koos Bekker with $2.8 billion

Koos Bekker is in 1 214^th place with $2.8 billion. He led Naspers to pay a reported $34 million for a third of Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings in 2001— perhaps the greatest venture investment ever. Naspers has sold down its stake in Tencent over the years and today owns 25%. Bekker, who retired as the CEO of Naspers in March 2014, returned as chairman in April 2015. He started 2024 with $2.4 billion.

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Number 1 262: Patrice Motsepe with $2.7 billion

Patrice Motsepe is at number 1 262 with $2.7 billion. He is the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals and became a billionaire in 2008 when he became the first black African on the Forbes list. In 2016, he launched a private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. He was elected president of the Confederation of African Football, the sport’s governing body on the continent, in 2021. He started 2024 with $2.4 billion.

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Number 1 931: Michiel le Roux with $1.6 billion

Michiel le Roux is at number 1 931 with $1.6 billion. He founded Capitec Bank in 2001 and owns about 11% of the shares. He served as chairman of the board of Capitec from 2007 to 2016 and has continued on as a board member. Le Roux previously ran Boland Bank, a small regional bank in Cape Town’s hinterland. He started 2024 with $1.1 billion.

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Number 1 996: Christo Wiese with $1.6 billion

Christo Wiese is at number 1 996 on the list with $1.6 billion. He built his Pepkor retail empire by offering bargain prices in South Africa and expanded into other African countries. Wiese stepped down as Steinhoff chairman in December 2017 after the company disclosed accounting irregularities. Its share price plummeted and Wiese lost his billionaire status. He regained his 9-figure fortune in 2022 when he settled his dispute with Steinhoff for cash and stock, including a 5% stake in Pepkor. He started 2024 with $1 billion.