Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe (born 28 January 1962) is a South African billionaire mining businessman. He is the founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, which has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals, and platinum. He sits on several company boards including being the non-executive chairman of Harmony Gold, the world’s 12th largest gold mining company, and the deputy chairman of Sanlam. In 2012, Motsepe was named South Africa’s richest man, topping the Sunday Times’ annual Rich List with an estimated fortune of R20.07 billion ($1 billion).
In 2003, he became the owner of football club Mamelodi Sundowns
In 2013, he joined The Giving Pledge, committing to give half his wealth to charitable causes
Early life and education
Patrice was born to Augustine Motsepe, a schoolteacher turned small businessman, who owned a Spaza shop popular with black mine workers. It was from this shop that Motsepe learned basic business principles from his father as well as first-hand exposure to mining. His father later became a chieftain.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Swaziland and a law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand He specialised in mining and business law.
Career
He became the first black partner in the law firm Bowman Gilfillan in 1994, the same year Nelson Mandela was elected the country’s first black president. At a time when the new government had begun the process of promoting black empowerment and entrepreneurship, Motsepe founded a company called Future Mining, which provided contract mining services that included the cleaning of gold dust from inside mine shafts, for the Vaal Reefs Gold mine, implementing a system of worker remuneration that combined a low base salary with a profit-sharing bonus.
In 1997, with gold prices at a low, he purchased marginal gold mines from AngloGold under favourable finance terms. AngloGold sold Motsepe six gold mine shafts for $7,7million allowing him to repay the debt out of the future earnings of the company now known as African Rainbow Minerals.
Since 2004, he has been a non-executive director of Absa Group and Sanlam.
In 2002 when it was listed on the JSE Security Exchange, African Rainbow Minerals joined with Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. and the company’s name changed to ARMgold. Motsepe is also the founder of African Rainbow Minerals Platinum (Proprietary) Limited and ARM Consortium Limited, which later equally split ownership with Anglo American Platinum Corp Ltd. From 2005, Motsepe was Chairman of Teal Exploration and Mining Incorporated. Motsepe is also chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, Non-Executive chairman of Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd. and deputy Chairman of Sanlam Ltd. Motsepe has been president of South Africa’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
He is currently the interim chairman of the Black Business Council and is a founding member and former president of one of South Africa’s most influential business advocacy and lobby group Business Unity SA (BUSA).
Motsepe and Ubuntu-Botho Investments is to partner with insurance and financial services company Sanlam to found a private equity firm with a focus on African investments.
Personal life
Motsepe is married to Dr. Precious Moloi, a physician and fashion entrepreneur. They have three children. He is the brother of Tshepo Motsepe and Bridgette Radebe, and the brother-in-law of both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Jeff Radebe.
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