Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe

Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe (centre), who was born on the 28th of January 1968, holds the honour of being South Africa's first black billionaire. In 2008, Forbes magazine listed him as the 503-rd richest person in the world with a net worth of $2.4 billion (approx. ZAR 20 billion).

He began his work life in his father's spaza shop at the tender age of six. He would wake up early in the morning to help sell liquor to miners. His father commented that they would bring in far more money when he was behind the counter. But even at that early age he realised it was not the way for him. So at the age of eight, while other children were still playing games, he decided to become a lawyer.

He received his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Swaziland and then his LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. His career path then took him to the firm of Bowman Gilfillan where he achieved partnership. And this is where his story might have ended with him as a successful lawyer specialising in mining and business law, possibly he would have advanced to becoming an advocate given time but instead in 1994 he opted to go into mining.

When he started out, no-one was interested in giving him a loan, so for nine months he ran his business from a briefcase. His first mining venture was a contract mining operation called Future Mining. He provided various services to the Vaal Reefs gold mine which is now part of AngloGold. This provided him with a golden opportunity when the major mining companies started to restructure.

South Africa gold groups like AngloGold were looking to restructure their operations to survive an extended downturn in the gold price. Part of the solution was to dispose of marginal shafts - which had a high-cost or short life - to focus on the remaining low-cost, long-life shafts. Motsepe formed African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) in 1997 and acquired a number of marginal shafts at Vaal Reefs in January 1998. He followed that with the purchase of other marginal shafts owned by AngloGold in the Free State. The challenge was then to turn them around through tighter cost control and better working efficiencies.

By empowering workers and adopting an attitude that mining was about people and not rocks, he was able to turn-around the marginal shafts. Each of the separate units in ARM is given free reign to exhibit entrepreneurial spirit.  Motsepe has an employee pay scheme of a low basic salary supplemented by performance-rated bonuses. ARM focuses on its strengths to enhance shareholder value by increasing gold production and reserves through acquiring mines where its management style and operating principles can be applied. By improving operating performance and reducing costs it feels it can pursue increased profitability aggressively.

Today ARM is one of the largest gold producers in the country and has led Motsepe to hold the following positions:

  • Chairmanships
  • Position Organisation Place Appointed Concluded
  • Non-Executive Chair African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) Johannesburg 2004  
  • Chair Naledi Mining Orkney 1997  
  • Chair Future Mining   1995  
  • Deputy Chair Sanlam Ltd.   2004  
  • Non-Executive Chair Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd.   2003  
  • Executive Chair African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) Johannesburg 1997 2004
  • Chair Teal Exploration and Mining      
  • Directorships
  • Position Institution Place Appointed Concluded
  • Non-Executive Director Absa Group Ltd   2004  
  • Non-Executive Director Absa Bank Ltd   2004  
  • Non-Executive Director Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd.   2006  
  • Non-Executive Director Sanlam Ltd.   2004  
  • Director African Fashion International      

He is also the president and owner Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club as well as being a Blue Bulls supporter. He is married Dr Precious Makgosi Moloi.

Sources: