October 22, 2008...2:18 pm

Famous South African business people

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Raymond Ackerman (born March 10, 1931) is a South African businessman, who purchased the Pick ‘n Pay supermarket group from its founder Mr Harry Goldin the founder of Clicks Group (H Goldin and company), Raymond Ackerman is still (as of 2007) the chairperson. He is also well known for his philanthropic activities. He purchased four stores from Harry Goldin in the sixties.


After graduating from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Commerce, he joined clothing group Ackermans in 1951 at the age of 20 as a trainee manager. Ackermans had been founded just after World War I by his father, Gus.


When the Ackermans group was later bought by competitor Greatermans, Ackerman was offered a position at Greatermans in Johannesburg. In the early 1950s, food retailing supermarkets first began to appear on the scene in South Africa. Ackerman persuaded Greatermans to follow this trend and in 1955 he was put in charge of starting its Checkers supermarkets.


Ackerman won the Outstanding Young South African award in 1965, along with Gary Player and by 1966, at the age of 35, he was the managing director of 85 Checkers stores. However, he was fired in the same year; Ackerman himself feels the cause was jealousy by the owners of the Greatermans group, as Ackerman’s supermarkets were making more money than the rest of Greatermans.


In response, using his severance pay and a bank loan, Ackerman bought four stores in Cape Town trading under the name Pick ‘n Pay. Under his leadership, Pick ‘n Pay eventually grew into one of Africa’s largest supermarket chains, with a thirty seven billion [1] Rand turnover (2006 figure) and more than 124 supermarkets, 14 hypermarkets and 179 franchised outlets. The Pick ‘n Pay Group employs more than 30 000 people in several Southern African countries and Australia.


Ackerman has been described as “a passionate advocate of consumer choice” and has fought many battles with the South African government (both pre- and post-1994) in his attempts to free up the highly regulated South African fuel industry.


Ackerman is married to Mrs Wendy Ackerman and has four children all of whom are involved in the business in various capacities. He received an honorary Doctorate in Law from Rhodes University in 1986 and an honorary Doctorate in Commerce from the University of Cape Town in 2001. Raymond and Wendy are actively involved in charitable activities both on a corporate and personal level.


He was voted 79th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.


 


 Christine Anderssen is one of the recognized authorities in the field of Joomla Application Development, Web Design and Internet marketing in South Africa.


After graduating from Hoerskool Linden[1] with 6 distinctions, she registered for a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in Mathematical Science at Rand Afrikaans University[2]. While the prevailing political climate in South Africa in the 1980s was a tumultuous one for students, Christine graduated in 1986.


Christine then pursued a career in Software Testing and Analysis at companies such as Standard Bank[3] and Eskom[4] before starting her own specialist Joomla! Web Design Agency, Tailormade 4 You.


 


Andrew Josef Feinstein (b. March 16, 1964) is a former South African politician who currently resides in the United Kingdom.


He was born in Cape Town on March 16, 1964, to Ralph Josef Feinstein and Erika Hemmer. He graduated from Wynberg Boys’ High School in 1981, and received further education at King’s College, Cambridge, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Cape Town. He married Simone Sultana on December 18, 1993, and has a son and a daughter. His interests include reading, classical & jazz music, cinema, theatre, watching rugby, cricket & soccer[1].


A member of the African National Congress, his political life began when he served as an advisor to Gauteng’s then-MEC of Finance, Jabu Moleketi, from 1994 to 1996. He also worked as an economic advisor to then-premier Tokyo Sexwale. He was elected as a member of the South African Parliament’s lower house in 1997.


During his his time in office, he served as chair of its study group on public accounts and ANC’s official spokesman on the National Assembly’s public accounts committee. Feinstein was at the time referred to as “one of its most vocal and talented MPs”, who argued that a thorough investigation into the South African Arms Deal had to be done.[2] However, he resigned in 2001 when the ANC refused to launch an investigation into the matter[3]. He was succeeded by Geoff Doidge in both positions.


He now resides in London, where he chairs the Aids charity Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign, and lectures and writes on South Africa. He also works as a Securities Coordinator for Investec Bank UK Ltd.


He is now considered an ANC dissident and critic, with his memoirs, After the Party, being severely critical of the political culture of the ANC.


 


 


David Howard Bale (September 2, 1941 – December 30, 2003)[1] was a South African-born entrepreneur and an animal rights activist.Bale grew up in England, Egypt and the Channel Islands.[1] He worked as a commercial pilot and later ran a commuter airline in England.[2] His business activities included marketing imported jeans and skateboards.[2][1]


Bale was an activist for environmental and animal rights causes. He served as a board member of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Ark Trust,[2] which in 2002 became the Hollywood branch of the Humane Society of the United States.[3] He also served as a board member for World Education, Inc., an international non-profit organization known for its work in educational development, located in Boston, Massachusetts.


Bale was married three times. His first marriage to Sandra Bale in South Africa ended in divorce, as did his second marriage in England to Jenny Bale. He had a daughter, Erin Bale Kreunen, from the first marriage, and three children from his second marriage: Louise, Sharon, and Christian, the latter of whom became a well-known actor.


On September 3, 2000, he married the feminist writer, journalist, activist, and political leader Gloria Steinem in a private ceremony in Oklahoma.[4] At the time of the marriage, Bale had been facing deportation after overstaying his visa.[5] However, both Steinem and Bale denied that Bale’s immigration status was the motivation for the wedding.[5]


Steinem had in the past been critical of the institution of marriage, stating that “marriage was the model for slavery law in this country”.[6] She explained her change in attitude toward marriage, saying, “I didn’t change. Marriage changed. We spent 30 years in the United States changing the marriage laws. If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating, many of my civil rights. That’s not true anymore. It’s possible to make an equal marriage.”[7]


Bale and Steinem remained married until Bale died of brain lymphoma on December 30, 2003, at the age of 62.


 


 


Roelof Botha is a venture capitalist. He began his career as an actuary.


He was the CFO of PayPal. Now he works for Sequoia Capital and sat on the board of directors of YouTube before its acquisition by Google. Botha sits on the board of Meebo, and Xoom. Botha graduated first in his class from Stanford Business School in 2000, prior to which he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., Johannesburg. He also attended the University of Cape Town where he did a BSc in Actuarial Science, Economics, and Statistics, where he graduated with the highest GPA in the history of the program. He became the youngest actuary in South African history soon after graduating.[1][2]


Botha is the grandson of the former South African Foreign Affairs Minister of the same name who was also known as Roelof ‘Pik’ Botha. Pik Botha, a former South African politician who served as the country’s foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era. He was considered to be a liberal – at least in comparison to others in the then-ruling National Party.


Sir Rupert Charles Bromley, 10th Bt. (born 2 April 1936 in South Africa) is a retired military man and a businessman.


Bromley was educated at Michaelhouse and graduated with a BA from Rhodes University and with a MA from Christ Church, Oxford


In 1956, he won a Rhodes scholarship and also gained the rank of officer in the service of the Royal Rhodesia Regiment. In 1959, he was admitted to Inner Temple and entitled to practice as a barrister.


He was with the British South Africa Company between 1959 and 1966. He retired from the military in 1965, with the rank of Captain, late of the Royal Rhodesia Regiment. He was with Anglo American between 1966 and 1972. He succeeded to the title of 10th Baronet Smith, of East Stoke, co. Nottingham [G.B., 1757] on 14 June 1966. (his father Major Sir Rupert Howe Bromley, 9th Bt.) He was with Murray and Roberts Ltd between 1972 and 1989. He was with the Aggregate and Sand Producers Association of South Africa between 1990 and 1999.


 


Clive Calder (born: 1946 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a South African-born and UK based (resident in Cayman Islands for tax purposes) record executive and businessman.


He is currently the wealthiest music billionaire in Britain, worth an estimated £1.3bn.


He was the founder of the Zomba Music Group which he sold in 2002 for $1.8bn to the German-based media group Bertelsmann.


His primary residence is in the Cayman Islands although he also has residences in London and New York City and previously in Larchmont, NY, U.S..


 


Sir John Craven (born 23 October 1940) is a director of Reuters and formerly Deutsche Bank and chairman of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group plc.


Craven was educated at Michaelhouse and read law at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is a member of the Canadian and Ontario Institutes of Chartered Accountants.


In 1967, Craven joined SG Warburg & Co Limited, becoming an executive director in 1969. In his later career he became Group Chief Executive of White Weld & Co Ltd (subsequently Credit Suisse First Boston) from 1975 to 1978 and a vice chairman of SG Warburg & Co Limited in 1979. In 1981 he founded Phoenix Securities Limited which was acquired by Morgan Grenfell Group plc in 1987 when he took on the role of Group Chief Executive of Morgan Grenfell Group plc. He served as a member of the board of managing directors of Deutsche Bank from 1990 until 1996.


Craven was chairman of Morgan Grenfell Group plc from 1989, a post he retained when the group was renamed as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group plc in 1996. He is a non-executive director of Rothmans International plc and a member of the Supervisory Board, Société Générale de Surveillance SA, Geneva. He is also a Trustee of the Cambridge University Foundation.


 


Michael Edwardes (born October 11, 1930 in South Africa) is a business executive.


Edwardes matriculated from St. Andrew’s College in 1947 before graduating from Rhodes University. He began his career in 1951 with the Chloride Group. He went on in 1966 to serve as the general manager of the company’s subsidiary Alkaline Batteries.


In 1977 he was appointed as chief executive of the United Kingdom’s ailing motor giant, British Leyland. In 1980 he attracted criticism for a speech to the CBI Conference in which he said, “If the Cabinet do not have the wit and imagination to reconcile our industrial needs with the fact of North Sea oil, they would do better to leave the bloody stuff in the ground.”[1] His tenure with British Leyland lasted until 1982, when he was replaced by Harold Musgrove. In 1984, he became Chairman of ICL, but resigned six months later when the company was acquired by STC.


Edwardes is also an author. He wrote Back from the Brink, a book which discusses his experiences at British Leyland.


He donated over R500,000 to St. Andrew’s College in 2005


]


John Fairbairn (9 April 1794 – 5 October 1864) was a newspaper proprietor, educator, financier and politician. According to the Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, “The embryo of the State education system we know today, trial by jury, the principle of the mutual life assurance company – all these were fruits of his endeavours at the Cape”.[


 


John Fairbairn was born in Carolside Mill in the Parish of Legerwood, Berwickshire, Scotland on 9 April 1794, the son of James Fairbairn and Agnes Black.[2]


He attended the University of Edinburgh where he studied Medicine “acquiring at the same time a more than passing knowledge of classical languages and mathematics”.[3] In 1818, however, he turned to education, and for more than 5 years taught at Bruce’s Academy in Newcastle upon Tyne. Here he also joined the Literary and Philosophical Society.


In 1822, Thomas Pringle persuaded him to emigrate to Cape Town, promising a literary and teaching career in the recently annexed Cape Colony.


Fairbairn arrived in Table Bay on 11 October 1823 aboard the brig Mary.


Fairbairn married Elizabeth (Eliza) Philip, daughter of John Philip on 24 May 1831.


Five children were born to Fairbairn and Eliza.



  • Jane Agnes b. 1832. m. F.S. Watermeyer

  • John Philip b. 1834. Drowned in the Gamtoos River near Hankey in the Eastern Cape on 1 July 1845

  • James Alexander b. 1836. m. Kate Lamb


  • Elizabeth Ann Wills (Eliza) b. 1838.

  • May Emma b. and d. 1840.

Fairbairn’s wife, Eliza, died on 30 May 1840, four days after the birth of May Emma, at the age of twenty-eight.


As a widower, Fairbairn was responsible for the education of his children. Jane and Eliza were sent to a private school in Claremont, Mrs Rose’s School for Ladies.


The British Government made an attempt in 1849 to form a penal settlement at the Cape, but when the ship Neptune arrived at Simon’s Bay, with 282 convicts aboard, the citizens declined to supply anything to persons having dealings with her. So strictly was this pledge observed that no food whatever was obtainable, either for the convicts or for the troops. During the riots which ensued, Newspaper Editor, John Fairbairn’s house at Sea Point was wrecked by a crowd who had lost their employment through the boycott. In the end the colonists were victorious, and on 21 February 1850, the Neptune set sail for Tasmania.[5]


 “Few men could have lived lives as full of worthwhile activity as John Fairbairn did. Few men could have got so little recognition from history”.[3]


When an English-medium co-educational high school was established in Goodwood, Cape Town in 1977, the School Governing Body decided to name it Fairbairn College.[6]


Fairbairn Capital is an investment company within the Old Mutual group of companies. It was named after the founder of Old Mutual, John Fairbairn. According to the Fairbairn Capital website, in naming it Fairbairn Capital, “we recognise his contributions, draw on his heritage and laud his values”.[7]


Old Mutual International is based in Fairbairn House in St Peter Port on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands.[8]


On 24 August 1994, the John Fairbairn boardroom was opened at the South African Chamber of Business parliamentary information centre in Cape Town by SA Chamber of Business director-general Mr Raymond Parsons. The boardroom together with the Rainbow Room was sponsored by Shell SA and Old Mutual and is used for meetings of businessmen and politicians.[9]


Fairbairn died suddenly in Cape Town on 5 October 1864 at the Wynberg home of his son-in-law, advocate F.S. Watermeyer, and was buried in the Somerset Road cemetery in Cape Town.[10]


In 1947 the British Government decided to give Marion Island and Prince Edward Island to South Africa, in order to prevent them falling into hostile hands. HMSAS Transvaal was dispatched in great secrecy, and on 4 January 1948, Lieutenant Commander John Fairbairn, great grandson of John Fairbairn, landed on Prince Edward Island and claimed the islands for South Africa.[11] The meteorological station is known as Fairbairn Settlement and is on Transvaal Cove.


In 2007, Fairbairn’s great great great granddaughter, Tessa Fairbairn, was awarded the Order of Simon of Cyrene. She was the head of St. Cyprian’s School, a progressive girls’ boarding and day school in Cape Town, South Africa for 17 years.[12]


 


 


David Frankel is the co-founder of Internet Solutions, the largest ISP and private data carrier in Africa. Frankel was CEO and Joint Managing Director of IS and has been a Director of Dimension Data plc since selling IS to his group. Frankel was the founder and Chairman of HealthBridge. He is the co-founder of Altirah Capital and is a General Partner of Ovation Capital Partners, an early stage VC group based in New York.


In 2000, Mr. Frankel was voted the South African Technology Achiever of the Century, by the Financial Mail. The World Economic Forum later selected him for the GLT (Global Leader of Tomorrow) program. Frankel is an Electrical Engineer (Wits) and post selection for the Fulbright Scholarship Program earned an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School. He is the Founder of ISPA (the South African Internet Service Providers Association) and currently serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations including Foundation 2000, the King David Schools Foundation and Endeavor South Africa.


 


 


Ivan Glasenberg, (born 1957 in South Africa) has been the CEO of Glencore, one of the word’s largest commodity trading companies, since 2002. He is also, as of 2006, a member of the board of Xstrata plc and a director of Minara Resources Ltd. Before joining Glencore, he was with Levitt Kirson Chartered Accountants for five years.


In 2005, BusinessWeek referred to Glasenberg as a key figure (“lieutenant”) in the secretive oil-trading inner circle of Marc Rich, a billionaire commodities trader charged with tax evasion and illegal deals with Iran and later pardoned by U.S. president Bill Clinton.[1


 


Donald Gordon is a South African businessman and philanthropist. The Royal Opera House and Wales Millennium Centre received a donation of £20 million payable over five years from the leading London based South African businessman Donald Gordon. This is believed to be the largest single private donation ever made to the arts in the UK, and as such has had the main auditorium of the Wales Millennium Centre named after him as well as the Grand Tier at the Royal Opera House. Educated at King Edward VII School and at Wits University before doing articles at Isaacs and Kessel. He is a CA(SA) and founded LIBERTY LIFE (listed on the JSE


 


 


Adrian Gore is a leading South African businessman. He is the CEO of Discovery Holdings Ltd. and Chairman of both Destiny Health Inc. in the USA and Prudential Health Limited in the UK.


He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with a B.Sc. (Honours) in Actuarial Science. In 1990, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh) and in 1992 as an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (Chicago). He is also a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.


In 1992, Adrian founded Discovery Health, South Africa's largest medical aid, providing healthcare for more than 218,000 companies and 1.8 million people.


Discovery Health pioneered rewards based healthcare with its Vitality program, for which it holds a worldwide patent.


Adrian also serves on the Board of the Ethics Institute of SA and is currently the Chairman of the South African Board of Jewish Education. Adrian was chosen as South Africa’s Best Entrepreneur in the 1998 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and was voted as the most admired individual in medical aid and health insurance by the Professional Management Review. In 2000 Adrian was voted the South African Jewish Business Achiever Award and in 2004 he won the Moneyweb CEO of the Year Award.


 


 


David Hathorn (born 21 May 1962 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) is a South African businessman and chief executive of Mondi Europe, finance director of Mondi International and the Anglo Forest Products Division and director of Anglo American.


Hathorn was educated at Hilton College and the University of Natal, where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst.


Hathorn served articles with Pim Goldby in Pietermaritzburg from 1985 to 1987 before becoming an audit managemer with Pim Goldby in Durban. He joined Anglo American in 1989 as a divisional finance manager in the Corporate & International Finance Department. From 1992 to 1993 he served as personal assistant to the executive chairman of Mondi Ltd. He served as general manager of Mondi International and finance director of Mondi Europe from 1993 to 1999 and was appointed to his current positions of finance director of Mondi International and chief executive of Mondi Europe in 1999 and 2000 respectively.


 


Louise Anne Holton Founder and President Alley Cat Rescue.


Louise Holton, a South African, worked in Africa on conservation issues in the 1970s, concentrating on endangered species such as the cheetah. She also worked with the Johannesburg SPCA on cat overpopulation including pioneering work on nonlethal control of homeless and stray cats.


She moved to the U.S. in 1986 to work in animal protection. She was the founder of Alley Cat Allies in 1990, bringing to the U.S. her experience in working with homeless cats in South Africa and also involving her many British counterparts, biologists and veterinarians, who pioneered this work in Britain and in other parts of the world.


She is often quoted in the media as an expert in dealing with feral cats and on issues pertaining to them, such as rabies control and wildlife predation. Holton has received numerous awards for her articles and newsletters, including several prestigious Muse Medallions, from the Cat Writers Association. She was a keynote speaker at the CWA annual conference in 1999.


Holton has been a member of the Summit of Animals for 8 years. The Summit is made up of 48 national animal protection groups. Holton is also a member of the California Council of Animal Advocates. CCCAA is a diverse group that finds solutions to animal overpopulation. She was a presenter at the Scientific Workshop on Feral Cats sponsored by American Humane Association in 1996. In 1998 Holton presented workshops on feral cats at the Western Veterinary Medicine Conference.


Holton served on the Advisory Panel of President Clinton’s Invasive Species Council. Holton is concerned that exotic species are treated inhumanely, and she was a strong voice on this panel for non-lethal control of all sentient animals. [Cat Fancy Magazine] *[1] recognized Holton’s work, and in January 2000 listed this as “one of the Greatest Moments for 20th Century Cats.”


She has been rescuing cats for 30 years, and is an expert in dealing with neonatal kittens, homeless and stray cats. Holton is also a world pioneer in promoting and implementing non-lethal control for feral cats (Trap-Neuter-Return). She advises groups in Australia, South Africa, Israel, South America and other countries.


 


Roger Brett Kebble (February 19, 1964 – September 27, 2005) was a South African mining magnate with close links to factions in the ruling political party, the African National Congress. He was shot to death in 2005 by unknown assailants.


Brett was born in the mining town of Springs, on the East Rand.


He matriculated from St. Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein, in 1981, and then went on to the University of Cape Town, from where he graduated in 1986.


His first job was as an articled clerk for Mallinicks Cape Town, in the late 1980s.


He was involved in the sale by Anglo American of its JCI gold assets to Mzi Khumalo in 1995, but the partnership ended soon after.


In August 2005 he was deposed from the companies he ran, Western Areas, JCI and Randgold & Exploitation, following moves by concerned investors and stakeholders. There is an investigation to determine the whereabouts of some R2-billion-worth of Randgold Resources shares, which Randgold & Exploration could not easily account for and which had either been loaned out or sold. [1] [2] [3]


In public and private, Kebble lived a flamboyant life[citation needed]. He had strong business and political connections with ousted Deputy President Jacob Zuma[citation needed] and the ANC Youth League[citation needed], and was viewed by some[who?] as a black-economic empowerment visionary.


He married Ingrid in December 1990 and they had four children.


He was shot dead near a bridge over the M1 in Melrose Johannesburg at around 9pm on 27 September 2005 while driving to a dinner engagement. An autopsy performed three days after the murder found that the bullets were a rare, ‘low velocity’ type used by bodyguards and crack security operatives. The purpose of such bullets, which requires a specially adapted pistol, was to hit assassins and terrorists without passing through their bodies and hitting bystanders or hostages. Despite the closer range, the gunpowder burns in general were not severe, providing further evidence that the ammunition was of a special “reduced charge”. [1]. As of September, 2006, the murder is still unsolved. Legal action is now ongoing to resolve the issue of the missing Randgold and Exploration shares. As of April 2007, a tentative agreement had been reached providing for the merging of Ranggold and Exploration and JCI, the company to which Kebble transferred most ot the proceeds of the R&E shares.


On 16 November 2006 businessman Glenn Agliotti was arrested in connection with the murder of Brett Kebble. Agliotti is a close personal friend of South African Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Agliotti is alleged to have strong links with organised crime and racketeering. [2].


Kebble was the controversial patron of the Brett Kebble Art Awards which he established in 2003 to provide a showcase for established artists and help those less known attain recognition as well as build a non-racial bridge into the 21st century.


The Kebble as it became known, was the most inclusive award of its kind (often criticized for including a “craft” category to be judged on par with the other mediums like painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography) in South Africa. Adding to this, it was also the richest, having a total purse of R620 000 (roughly $98 000) with a grand prize of R200 000 (roughly $32 000).


After Kebble’s murder, his family decided to cancel the 2006 awards.


In February 2006, artist Deborah Weber opened with a solo exhibition in Johannesburg called The Kebble on the same day that the BKAA were to open at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. She explored the time trajectory from being selected as an artist for the 2004 Kebble Art Awards, to working on the awards in 2005 ending with Brett Kebble’s death in September 2005.


 


Kathryn “Kathy” Keeton (b. 1939, South Africa – September 19, 1997, New York, New York) was a magazine publisher along with her partner, and later husband, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione. Her title was President/COO of General Media Communications, Inc.


She founded the magazines Viva (1973); OMNI (1979); and Longevity (1989). She also published two books, Woman of Tomorrow (1986) and Longevity (1992).


After her diagnosis with breast cancer, Keeton treated herself with hydrazine sulfate, after reading about it in OMNI, one of her own publications. She claimed that she had ridden or shrunken almost all of the tumors and extended her life by several years, after being given a dire initial prognosis of only six weeks to live by her doctors.


Keeton died of complications during surgery for an intestinal obstruction, aged 58, in New York City


Howard Brett (“Butch”) Kerzner (27 January 1964, Durban – 11 October 2006) was the Chief Executive Officer of Kerzner International from 1 January 2004 until his death.


Butch was the son of hotel developer Sol Kerzner and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. He left South Africa in 1982 to study economics at Stanford University where he graduated in 1986.


Kerzner started with First Boston Corporation, New York in their Mergers and Acquisitions Department. He returned to Stanford University in 1989 to do a Master of Business Administration. In September 1991 Kerzner became an associate at Lazard Freres and Co. but at the request of his father who was Sun International’s founder, chairman and chief executive, he joined Sun International in September 1992 as Director of Corporate Development.


In May 1995 Kerzner left South Africa once again and joined his father’s new company, Kerzner International as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development.


In June 1996, he became President until the end of December 2003 when he took over from his father as Chief Executive Officer. On December 8, 2004, Kerzner was elected a Director of Kerzner International.


Kerzner married Hong Kong-born Vanessa; they had two children.


Kerzner was killed on October 11, 2006 when the helicopter he was travelling in crashed near Sosua in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic


 


Solomon (Sol) Kerzner (born 23 August 1935) is a South African hotel and gambling magnate.


Kerzner was born in Troyeville, Johannesburg, the youngest of four children to Jewish Russian immigrants. His family started a hotel chain; after Kerzner graduated as a Chartered Accountant, he took over the running of the group and went on to create the most successful hotel group in South Africa, Sun International. He is now Chairman of the Board of Kerzner International based on Paradise Island, Bahamas.


As a result of the success of the Sun City resort, he got involved in international hotel and gambling resorts; most notable is his role as the innovative developer behind the well-known Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.


His latest major development was suggested to be a proposed giant casino on the site of the Millennium Dome in London, alongside American businessman, Philip Anschutz. However, when the decision to grant a Super Casino licence was granted by the UK Government, the licence went to a proposal in Manchester instead, a proposal that Kerzner is reported to be involved in.


Another new project is a new Atlantis on the Palm in Dubai. Sol Kerzner’s luxury management company, One&Only Resorts, also manages seven five-star luxury resorts in The Bahamas, Mexico, Mauritius, Dubai and the Maldives.


He also developed and managed the Mohegan Sun casino located in Uncasville, Connecticut through a joint venture with the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut called Trading Cove Associates. TCA relinquished its management of the resort in 2002 but Kerzner through his company will still receive a 5% dividend on the gross revenue generated by Mohegan Sun until 2014.


During his role as a gambling resort developer, Sol Kerzner has been investigated for corruption a number of times, none of which have resulted in a conviction.


During 1985, Kerzner’s Sun City, South Africa resort was the topic of anti-Apartheid rock album titled Sun City by a group of rock musicians calling themselves Artists United Against Apartheid.


Sol’s heir, Howard (Butch) Kerzner died on 11 October 2006 when the helicopter he was travelling in crashed near Sosua, in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic.


Kerzner has been married four times and is currently married to Heather Kerzner née Murphy. During a lengthy period in the 1990s, he dated the model Christina Estrada but suddenly married her best friend, Heather Murphy, in 2000.[2] He was also married to the 1974 winner of the Miss World title Anneline Kriel, also of South Africa.


Mzi Godfrey Khumalo (1955 – ) is a South African businessman and mining entrepreneur.


He has held the following positions :-



  • Chairman – Mintek (2004 – )

  • Director (Non – Executive) – Ridge Mining (2002 – 2004)

  • Chairman – Capital Alliance Holdings (1995 – 1998)

  • Chairman – JCI Ltd (? – 1998)

  • Owner – Mawenzi Asset Management

  • Owner and chairman – Metallon Resources

Marius Kloppers (born August 26, 1962) is CEO of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company.[1] He is presently the group president of BHP’s non ferrous metals division


Kloppers graduated with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria and subsequently went on to study a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also graduated with an MBA from INSEAD.


Kloppers worked in petrochemicals at Sasol and materials research with Mintek in South Africa. Following completion of his MBA at INSEAD, he then worked with management consultants McKinsey & Co in Netherlands before joining Billiton in 1993. In 2007, at the age of 44, he was appointed CEO of the largest resource company in the world, BHP Billiton. He officially assumed the position of CEO on 1 October 2007.


 


Michael Levinsohn is a South African entrepreneur who has successfully established a number of businesses and financed the production of some albums by notable musicians


Michael Levinsohn was born on January 25, 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa.


Michael matriculated at Potchefstroom High School for Boys in 1979[citation needed]. He represented his school and province (state) at both field hockey and biathlon[citation needed]. He also won an Inter High Schools speech competition[citation needed]. He completed his compulsory national service in 1981, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant and attended the University of the Witwatersrand for three years, where he read for a law degree[citation needed].


He then co-founded a number of businesses including Kismet Marketing (Pty) Ltd., Atlantic Finance & Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd., and Digital Vouchers (Pty) Ltd.[citation needed] He was also a director of various companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange including Lanchem Ltd., Ventel Ltd., and Integrated Consumer Products Ltd. He is also a director of AIMMS Co. Ltd.[1], the leading Mobile phone based CRM service provider in Korea. In March 2008, USA based Sovereign Wealth Corp acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares in Digital Vouchers (Pty) Ltd, a business Levinsohn founded in 2003, in an all share exchange agreement[2].


Michael co-founded Webworks (Pty) Ltd.[citation needed], the company which in 1998 developed the smart card based Infinity CRM program, now the largest privately owned CRM and loyalty program in South Africa, with 1.2 million cardholders. Infinity’s technology was recognized internationally as leading edge at the time[citation needed]. Infinity was invited to become a partner in MasterCard’s international vendor program in 2002[citation needed]. Infinity was also voted the leading independent loyalty program in South Africa in 2002 in an independent study carried out by World Wide Worx (Pty) Ltd.[3]


Michael is the Managing Director of Sterling Trust (Pty) Ltd[4], a company he co-founded in 1985[citation needed]. Sterling Trust (Pty) Ltd has advised many South African companies on mergers and acquisitions in the technology, light engineering and financial services sectors. He is also a director of 121 Marketing (Pty) Ltd., a strategic marketing company that focuses on the Customer Relationship Management and loyalty industries. Levinsohn became the CEO of Mobicom Corp.[1] on January 15, 2008. He was also formerly responsible for the investments of theSouth African National Civics Organisation.[5]



In early 2008 Michael expanded his business interests to include his passion for motor racing and he formed a partnership with Intersport Racing [2] a leading American Le Mans, LMP Prototype racing team [3] to build the commerical arm of Intersport Racing.



Michael is an expert in Customer Relationship Management programs and strategy. He has developed and been awarded a provisional patent for his innovative Mobile Phone and Internet CRM program which provides brand owners and consumers with a fully integrated mobile phone CRM program[citation needed].


A number of articles written by Michael about CRM and loyalty have been published by leading South African journals.[6]


In 1991, Levinsohn co-financed the production of former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman’s album African Bach[7] through Atlantic Finance and Investment Holdings.


In 2000, he financed the production Miriam Makeba’s album Homeland[8], which was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best World Music Album[9].


Michael was also a co-owner for five years of The Blues Room[10], which was voted the top live music venue in Johannebsurg[11] six times in a row.


 


Sir Sydney Lipworth, QC, is a South African born British lawyer, businessman, public servant and philanthropist.


Lipworth was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1931. He is a co-founder of Hambro Life Assurance in the UK (subsequently called Allied Dunbar Assurance and now Zurich Financial Services) (1971-1988).


From 1988 to 1993 he served as Chairman of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in the UK (now the Competition Commission). He subsequently served as Chairman of Zeneca plc (now AstraZeneca plc) and Deputy Chairman of National Westminster Bank plc. He also served as Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council and founding Trustee of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation (until 2005).


He is also the Chairman of the Philharmonia Orchestra Trust, as well as holding several other directorships and charitable appointments involved with the arts.


Lipworth was knighted in 1991. He was called to the London Bar, appointed QC (hc)(1993) and is a Bencher, Inner Temple; He was awarded an honorary LL.D from the University of the Witwatersrand.


 


Sakumzi J. Macozoma (Saki) (12 May 1957 – ) is a South African businessman, politician, and former political activist.


Saki Macozoma is currently the Deputy Chairman of Safika Holdings (Pty) Ltd., and Chairman of STANLIB, Andisa Capital and Liberty Group. He is also a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress (since 1991). He was a Member of Parliament after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, but resigned in 1996 in order to become Managing Director of Transnet.


During the Apartheid era, he was a political activist; as a result, he was imprisoned for five years in the notorious prison on Robben Island.


He studied political science, economics and journalism at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and Boston University, USA, and holds a B.A. degree from UNISA.


In March 2008 he admitted major involvement in an ANC funding corruption scandal involving using his business connections to divert R9 million from a major BEE deal to the ANC’s funding vehicle, Chancellor House.


 


Richard John Pelwana Maponya, GCOB,[1] (born in Limpopo on December 24, 1926[1]) is a South African entrepreneur and property developer best known for building a business empire despite the restrictions of Apartheid and his determination to see the Soweto township develop economically


At the age of 24,[2] Maponya, then a teacher, took a job as a stock taker at a clothing maker and subsequently won a promotion for both himself and his white manager. In gratitude, the manager sold Maponya soiled clothing and offcuts, which he resold in Soweto. With the capital acquired he attempted to open a clothing retailer in Soweto, but was blocked by the government’s refusal to grant him a licence – despite the intervention by the law firm created by Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.[3]


Instead, in the early 1950s, Maponya and his wife Marina (a cousin of Nelson Mandela) established the Dube Hygenic Dairy, which employed a fleet of boys on bicycles to deliver milk to customers in Soweto with no access to electricity or refrigeration. [4] By the 1970s the retail empire had grown to include several general stores, car dealerships and filling stations. [5]


During the 1960s and 1970s Maponya was a member of the Urban Bantu Council. He resigned in 1977, shortly after youth affiliated with the African National Congress (ANC) requested that he do so, and shortly before the council offices were burnt to the ground.[6]


In the 1960s he was a founding member and the first president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) and likewise the founder and chairman of the African Chamber of Commerce.


But some consider his boldest political move to have been his choice of horse-racing colors. As the first person to be granted such colors in South Africa, Maponya chose green, gold and black, the colors of the ANC.[7]


On 27 September 2007 Nelson Mandela opened the Maponya Mall in Soweto. One of the largest shopping centers in the country, and one of few in black townships, it holds more than 200 stores and a cinema complex. [8].


Maponya acquired the land where the mall is situated in 1979, at first as a 100 year lease. In 1994, after several attempts, he acquired it outright. Various attempts to finance construction failed until Maponya’s holding company entered into a joint venture with Zenprop Property Holdings.


Grand Counselor of the Baobab, April 2007[9]


 


Samuel Marks better known as Sammy Marks 1843 – 18 February 1920, was a South African industrialist and financier


Born the son of a Jewish tailor in 1843/44 at Neustadt-Sugind, in Lithuania, Russia and endowed with integrity, courage, astonishing business acumen and immense vitality. Marks accompanied some horses to Sheffield in England while still a youth and not wanting to return to the Jewish persecution in Russia, decided to stay on. It was in Sheffield that he met his future in-laws. Hearing news of the diamond discoveries in Kimberley, he arrived at the Cape in 1869 and was shortly followed by his cousin Isaac Lewis, also from Neustadt-Sugind, with whom he forged the enduring partnership of Lewis & Marks. Marks started his career as a peddler in the rural districts of the Cape, but soon headed for Kimberley where his rise to prosperity began. They made a modest living supplying goods to mines and diggers, and later branched into diamond trading. Moving to Pretoria in 1881 he gained the confidence of President Kruger and the government of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). His friendship with Kruger became close and enduring and they had in common humble origins and a ready wit. Marks advised that Kruger build a railwayline from Pretoria to Lourenço Marques.


With the discovery of gold in the boomtown of Barberton and later on the Witwatersrand, Marks acquired business interests in both places, but found the coalfields of the southern Transvaal and northern Free State to be a more lucrative prospect. The Zuid-Afrikaansche en Oranje Vrijstaatsche Mineralen en Mijnbouwvereeniging was founded in 1892 to mine these coal deposits, and later gave the town of Vereeniging its name. Lewis & Marks business interests included a distillery, a canning factory and a glass factory. Their firm opened collieries at Viljoensdrif and elsewhere, and also started Vereeniging Estates Ltd., which was dedicated to developing agricultural land along the Vaal River. Marks pioneered the use of steam tractors and progressive farming implements. He also sponsored the establishing of flour-mills and brick and tile works at Vereeniging. In 1910 Marks was nominated as senator in the first Union Parliament, an office he held until his death. When A.H. Nellmapius was unable to execute a manufacturing contract he had concluded with the Government due to lack of funds, Lewis & Marks took over and constructed the Eerste Fabrieken near Pretoria.


Marks contributed generously to Jewish communities all over South Africa. The Pretoria synagogue was built in 1898, for which he donated all the bricks and paid for the electric light installation and chandeliers. At the end of the Anglo-Boer War, he presented a cast-iron fountain to the city of Pretoria, shipped from Glasgow and very Edwardian in design, it stands at the Zoological Gardens. Marks commissioned the statue of Kruger on Church Square in Pretoria – sculpted by Anton van Wouw and cast in bronze in Europe, it carried a price tag of ₤10 000.


In 1898 Marks was allowed the extraordinary privilege of using the state mint for a day. Marks used the opportunity to strike 215 gold tickeys – three-penny pieces that were normally silver – as mementos for his relatives and friends, including President Kruger and members of the Volksraad. The gold would certainly have come from the Sheba mine near Barberton, the only gold mine in which Marks had a substantial stake. This famous incident says much about the close relationship that these two men had. There was often a blurring of the boundary between personal and State property. Their relationship was almost feudal, as that of a king and highly regarded subject. Besides President Kruger, Marks enjoyed the trust of the Boer Generals Botha, De Wet, and de la Rey, and the respect of Earl Roberts, Lord Kitchener, and Lord Milner, and he played a not inconsiderable part in the negotiations for the cessation of Anglo-Boer hostilities at Vereeniging on 29 May 1902.


For many years Marks had planned an iron and steel works in the Transvaal, and had visited Britain to inspect the installations there at first hand. When he landed a contract with the Government in 1911 for smelting large quantities of scrap metal, he founded in 1912 the Union Steel Corporation.


At forty years of age and a very wealthy man, Marks started thinking about marriage. He returned to Sheffield in England and married Bertha Guttmann, nineteen years his junior. From this union nine children were born, six boys and three girls. Having himself received a limited schooling, Marks set great store by education and saw to it that the children were taught at home by governesses – boys until the age of eight, girls until the age of twelve and then they were sent to private schools in England.


Marks built a grand Victorian mansion, Zwartkoppies Hall, near Pretoria, which became well-known to celebrities and dignitaries visiting South Africa. Having the same restless energy that led to Marks’s success, his wife Bertha controlled the house and its staff with ease, managing to raise nine children, breed poultry, garden, and entertain on a lavish scale. Luncheons, dinners, croquet on the lawn, tennis and billiards, parties were all regular events, and there were often no fewer than 30 guests at a time. A staff of 14, most of whom were engaged through an agency in London, carried out the housework. Parlourmaids, kitchenmaids, laundrymaids and gardeners, as well as a governess, a cook, an estate carpenter and an English butler. A massive stove in the kitchen, with five ovens and 10 hot-plates, testified to the scale of the entertainment.


After Marks’ death, his widow and some of the children lived in the house until the death of the last one in 1991. After a period of standing vacant, the family realized it was in need of maintenance and a suitable tenant was sought. In 1984 an agreement was reached with the National Cultural History Museum according to which the Government was to buy the contents of the house from the estate, restore the house and rent it from the family trust. In 1986 the Sammy Marks Museum opened its doors to the public. In 1995 roughly 73ha surrounding the house and upon which all of the historical buildings are situated, was cut from the rest of the farm and sold to the National Cultural History Museum.


Sammy Marks died in Johannesburg on 18 February 1920.


 


 


Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe (born 28 January 1962 in Johannesburg) is a leading South African mining entrepreneur. His company, African Rainbow Minerals, has interests in gold, ferrous metals, base metals, and platinum.


He is married to Dr. Precious Makgosi Moloi and they have three children.


Patrice Motsepe won South Africa’s Best Entrepreneur Award in 2002[1]. In 2004 he was voted 39th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. In 2008 he was 503-rd richest person in the world, by the Forbes World Billionaires List.


As a passionate football lover he owns Mamelodi Sundowns FC which is the most successful club in South Africa since the inception of the Premier Soccer League in 1996. They have won four league titles and a few cups, and are still the only club to have won three consecutive league titles. He is also a big contributor to the social development of South Africa, sponsoring a few disadvantaged NGO’s and school journeys aimed at discovering the future starts of South Africa soccer.


Since 2004, he is also a Non-Executive Director of Absa Group and Sanlam. [2]


 


Elon Musk (born 28 June 1971) is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX. He is chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity.


Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother[1] who has worked as a New York City dietitian[2] and modeled for fun.[3] His father inspired his love of technology and Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program;[1] by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster.[1]


After matriculating at Pretoria Boys High School he left home in 1988 at the age of 17, without his parents’ support,[2] and in part because of the prospect of compulsory service in the South African military: “I don’t have an issue with serving in the military per se, but serving in the South African army suppressing black people just didn’t seem like a really good way to spend time,”.[1] He headed toward the US, saying: “It is where great things are possible. I am nauseatingly pro-American.”[3] Leaving South Africa he first went to Kingston, Ontario where he enrolled at Queen’s University,[3] barely scraping by on as little as $1 a day[1] with part-time and summer jobs.[3] He then landed a prestigious scholarship to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “Tuition costs are outrageous … Fortunately, they gave me a scholarship … so I only had to cover living expenses, books, etc., by working.”[3] From Wharton he received an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelors degree in physics.[2][4] His undergraduate degrees behind him, Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were “important problems”, as he said later, “One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space.”[1]


Musk lives in Bel-Air, California, with his wife, the author Justine Musk, their five sons and three dogs. On September 13, 2008 Justine posted a notice on her blog that the couple is divorcing. The blog, moschus.livejournal.com, partially read, “I am getting divorced. We had a good run. We married young, took it as far as we could and now it is over. That’s about all I can say for now, other than that it was a very sad and very necessary decision.”


In 1995, Musk went on to a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2,[2] which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq’s AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.[5]


In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payments company.[2] One year later, X.com acquired Confinity, originally a company formed to beam money between Palm Pilots,[6] and the combined entity focused on email payments through the PayPal domain, acquired as part of Confinity. In February 2001, X.com changed its legal name to PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock.[7] Before its sale, Musk, the company’s largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal’s shares.[8]


In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles, with an emphasis on low cost and high reliability. The company’s first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.


In addition to his business activities in entrepreneurial space, Musk is the principal owner and CEO of Tesla Motors, which builds a high-end luxury electric vehicle.[9] He is also the primary investor and Chairman of the Board of SolarCity, a photovoltaics products and services startup company.[10] The underlying motivation for funding both companies is to help combat global warming.[11]


Musk’s fortune is estimated at US$328 million.[


 


Alois Hugo Nellmapius 5 May 1847 - 27 July 1893, was a South African businessman, industrialist and pioneer conservationist.


Born in Budapest, he was raised in Vienna, trained as an engineer in Holland and arrived in South Africa on board the ship Nathan in 1873 - one of his fellow passengers was John X. Merriman, later Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. This was the year that gold was first found in the ZAR. He was successful at gold mining near Pilgrim's Rest in the Eastern Transvaal, and managed to obtain the first transport concession to Delagoa Bay in 1875. He constructed what is now known as the Nellmapius Road, from Mac-Mac and the goldfields, crossing the Crocodile River at Nellmapius Drift near Hectorspruit to Matalha Poort in Mozambique. For these services he was granted 4 farms. Nellmapius made and lost several fortunes in his lifetime and was a close friend of Paul Kruger. He was the first digger on the Transvaal goldfields to make use of dynamite.


Nellmapius served in the Sekhukhune Wars and the Mapoch campaign. He established Irene Estate (named after his daughter) near Pretoria and bought a number of farms on the Hennops River. He employed horticulturists Richard Wills Adlam, who had been the Curator of the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Garden, and his successor, Hans Fuchs. Under their management and with a temperate climate, ample water and fertile soil, they transformed the land into an extensive flower, fruit and vegetable garden of world renown. Flora Shaw of "The Times" of London, visited the Irene Estate in 1892 and was astounded at the scale of the farm and gardens: "With the exception of cherries, gooseberries and currants, all European fruits flourish well. Throughout the estate the water courses, which divided the fields, were bordered by hedges of quince, pear, apple, plum and peach...acres of roses, violets and ornamental plants surrounded the house..."


Kruger House, situated in Church Street West, Pretoria, and built in a Victorian veranda style, was designed by Tom Claridge, one of Pretoria’s first architects and was erected on the instructions of Nellmapius.


He also owned the Pretoria newspaper De Pers. Due to lack of funds he lost a Government manufacturing contract at Eerste Fabrieken to Sammy Marks. His first enterprise was the Hatherley Distillery that produced gin and whisky on the farm Hatherley, opened by President Kruger on 6 June 1883 and named Volkshoop. He started the first gunpowder factory in South Africa and the Irene Lime Works. On the death of Nellmapius, Marks took over his concessions for the distillery, canning fruit and a ceramics factory.


Nellmapius often entertained in grand style at Irene and a frequent guest was Transvaal president, Paul Kruger. Arnold Theiler's first employment in South Africa was with Nellmapius. He married Johanna Corlydia Hoffman in 1882, and lived at the Irene Estate until his death


 


Julian Ogilvie Thompson (born 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African businessman and former chairman of De Beers and Anglo American.


Ogilvie Thompson was educated at Diocesan College in Cape Town and the University of Oxford. In 1957, he became personal assistant to Harry Oppenheimer and joined the Anglo American finance division in 1961. He went on to manage and head this division and also joined the De Beers board in 1966.


Ogilvie Thompson was appointed an executive director of Anglo American in 1971 and succeeded Harry Oppenheimer as chairman of Minorco in 1982 and as chairman of De Beers in 1985. He succeeded Gavin Relly as chairman of Anglo American in 1990 and retired as chairman of De Beers in 1997 to become a non-executive deputy chairman.


After leading the 1999 merger of Anglo American and Minorco, Ogilvie Thompson became its chairman and CEO. He was succeeded by Tony Trahar in 2000 but continued as a non-executive chairman.


He also resigned as deputy chairman of De Beers in 2002 but remains a non-executive director there


 


Sir Bernard Oppenheimer, 1st Baronet (13 February 1866–13 June 1921) was a South African-British diamond merchant and philanthropist.


Oppenheimer was chairman of Pniel's Ltd, the New Vaal River Diamond & Exploration Company, and Blaauwbosch Diamonds Ltd, and managing director of Lewis & Marks Ltd of Holborn. His brother, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, was also heavily involved in the diamond industry.


In July 1917, Oppenheimer established a scheme for training disabled soldiers in diamond cutting at Brighton, England. The Bernard Oppenheimer Diamond Works (National Diamond Factories Ltd) opened on Lewes Road on 1 April 1918. It was mainly paid for by Oppenheimer himself and by Lewis & Marks. In 1920 it also opened branches in Cambridge, Wrexham and Fort William. By 1921 the works employed about 2,000 men who were referred to it by the Ministry of Labour. New men received six months training, during which they were paid a maintenance allowance by the government, and were then virtually guaranteed employment at a good wage. The factory had a well-equipped clinic to provide ongoing care for the employees, many of whom were amputees or otherwise severely disabled. The business did not do well and closed in 1923, but reopened later the same year. It finally went into receivership in 1924.


For his work with the disabled, Oppenheimer was created a baronet in the 1921 New Year Honours. He died suddenly six months later at the age of 55.


 


Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (28 October 1908 – 19 August 2000) was a prominent South African businessman and one of the world's richest men. In 2004 he was voted 60th in the SABC3's Great South Africans.


The son of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, Harry was born to an assimilated Jewish family of German origins in Kimberley, the original centre for diamond mining in South Africa, and lived most of his life in Johannesburg. He had a formal Bar mitzvah ("coming of age") ceremony in the Kimberley synagogue when he turned thirteen.


After completing his primary schooling in Johannesburg, he attended Charterhouse School in England, before going on to study at Christ Church, Oxford University, graduating in 1931 in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. When he married his wife Bridget, he chose to enter the Anglican Church, but remained a supporter of Jewish causes during his entire life. He authorized the flow of diamonds to Israel's important diamond-sorting and diamond-cutting industry.


Harry Oppenheimer was the chairman of Anglo American Corporation for a quarter of a century and chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines for 27 years until he retired from those positions in 1982 and 1984 respectively. His son Nicky Oppenheimer became Deputy Chairman of Anglo in 1983 and Chairman of De Beers in 1998.


He also spent some time as the Member of Parliament for Kimberley (1948 to 1957) and became the opposition spokesman on economics, finance and constitutional affairs. His opposition to apartheid was well known as were his philanthropy and business acumen.


He was also extremely generous to the official philanthropies of the State of Israel. He personally directed that Israel receive the necessary diamond raw products from De Beers in order to establish itself as one of the world's diamond polishing and exporting countries.


In the 1970s and 1980s, he financed the anti-apartheid Progressive Federal Party, that later merged the Democratic Alliance.


 


Nicholas "Nicky" F. Oppenheimer (born 8 June 1945) is a billionaire South African businessman, the chairman of the De Beers diamond mining company and its subsidiary, the Diamond Trading Company. He also has a large financial interest in the gold mining company Anglo American.


He is the son of Harry Oppenheimer and grandson of Ernest Oppenheimer, the first generation of the family to chair (from 1929) the De Beers diamond mining company in South Africa, founded by Cecil John Rhodes in 1888.


He was educated in England at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated with a MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.


Forbes "World's Richest People" List of billionaires (2005) estimated his net worth at US$6.0 billion in 2005.


In 1968 he married Orcillia "Strilli" Lasch, daughter of industrial tycoon Helli Lasch and Orcillia Lasch, Sen.. His son Jonathan Oppenheimer and nephew Taylor Plant are expected to succeed him in the company.


He lives in Johannesburg on the Brenthurst Gardens estate and has a country estate in England, Waltham Place (with gardens open to the public and an associated organic Farm), at White Waltham in Berkshire.


He, and his wife, Strilli, are members of the St George's Anglican Church, Parktown, Johannesburg. The Brenthurst Garden is affiliated to The Quiet Garden Trust, a Christian organisation providing places for prayer, silence and reflection.


 


Gareth Penny (born 1962) is a South African businessman and Managing Director of De Beers.


Penny was educated at Diocesan College and Eton College, before reading a MA in PPE at the University of Oxford, where he was both treasurer and librarian of the Oxford Union and a Rhodes scholar.


Penny joined Anglo American and helped establish the Anglo American and De Beers small business initiative. He then helped start a diamond cutting factory in Botswana. Penny was later promoted to the position of Diamond Consultant for Southern Africa in 1996, where he was responsible for the sales of rough diamonds to the South African cutting industry. In 1999, he was appointed manager in charge of the De Beers Strategic Review and in 2001 was appointed director in charge of the Diamond Trading Company’s sales and marketing activities, based in London. In 2002, Penny was appointed to the Board of De Beers Centenary and in 2003 he was appointed to the Board of De Beers sa. In 2004 Gareth became Managing Director of the Diamond Trading Company.


Erik du Plessis is the Chairman of Millward Brown South Africa and author of the "The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising," 2005. He specializes in brand and advertising research. He is also a regular at major conferences across the globe. Erik was also a guest professor at the University of Copenhagen and will return again later this year


Du Plessis formerly ran his own research company, Impact Information, in South Africa. Du Plessis derived his inspiration for "The Advertised Mind" from his days as a media planner early in his career.


Compiling research performed by Du Plessis and Millward Brown, "The Advertised Mind" theorizes that the strongest factor in successful marketing is whether an advertisement creates an emotional response in its target audience. du Plessis bases his conclusions on recent discoveries in neuroscience--particularly the limbic system--which suggest that emotion establishes a firm memory of an advertisement and predisposes consumers to buy the brand that is being advertised. du Plessis also refers to Adtrack’s database of responses to over 30,000 TV commercials, and explores how this paradigm shift can maximize return on advertising spend. "The Advertised Mind" has been widely endorsed by academics and the advertising world


 


 


Jan du Plessis (born 1954[1]) is the non-executive Chairman of British American Tobacco’s board of directors,[2] and a non-executive director of the Lloyds TSB Group.[3] Du Plessis was placed tenth in The Times‘ 2006 Power 100,[4] a list which rates the most powerful people in British business.[5]


Jan, an Afrikaner,[6] grew up near Cape Town, South Africa.[2] He studied at the University of Stellenbosch for degrees in commerce and law, and is also qualified as a chartered accountant in his home country.[2] He currently has dual British and South African citizenship and lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife and three children.[1] Although a prominent figure in the tobacco industry, du Plessis does not smoke.[1]


Du Plessis worked in various management positions in the South African Rembrandt Group from 1981, and in 1988 he became Group Finance Director of Compagnie Financière Richemont.[2] He also held the same position at tobacco manufacturer Rothmans International between 1990 and 1995.[3] When Rothmans International was merged with British American Tobacco in 1999, du Plessis became a non-executive director on that board.[4]


In April 2004, du Plessis left his position at Richemont to take on the role of non-executive Chairman at British American Tobacco.[7] In June 2005, he was appointed non-executive Chairman of the UK food business RHM.[2] In October of the same year, du Plessis joined the board of directors at the Lloyds TSB Group as a non-executive director.[8]


Du Plessis is also a member of the governing body of the International Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom.[9]


 


 


Dr. Anthony Edward Rupert (4 October 1916 – 18 January 2006) was an Afrikaner and South African billionaire entrepreneur, businessman and conservationist. He was born and raised in the small town of Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape. He studied in Pretoria and ultimately moved to Stellenbosch, where he established the Rembrandt Group [2] was formed and where it still has its headquarters. He died in his sleep at his home in Thibault Street, Stellenbosch at the age of 89, and is survived by a son Johann, a daughter Hanneli[3] and six grandchildren. His wife and his youngest son, Anthonij, pre-deceased him.


According to his biography, Rupert’s business career spanned over sixty years. He started his global empire with a personal investment of just ₤10 in 1941 becoming named on the Forbes list of 500 wealthiest families worldwide. At the time of his death his assets were estimated at $1.7 billion.


After dropping out of medical school due to a lack of funds, Rupert earned a chemistry degree at the University of Pretoria, where he also lectured for a short while. Subsequently, he started a dry-cleaning business.


Some time later, with an initial investment of GBP 10 and together with two fellow investors, he started manufacturing cigarettes in his garage, which he eventually built into the tobacco and industrial conglomerate Rembrandt Group, overseeing its transition to the industrial and luxury branded goods sectors, with Rembrandt eventually splitting into Remgro (an investment company with financial, mining and industrial interests) and Richemont (a Swiss based luxury goods group). Currently, this business empire encompasses hundreds of companies located in 35 countries on six continents, with combined yearly net sales in the region of USD 10 billion.


Rupert had also been deeply involved in environmental conservation and his companies have been prominent in funding the fine arts; since 1964 foundations established by Rembrandt have used a part of the group’s profits for the promotion of education, art, music and the preservation of historical buildings.


He also played an important role in the South African Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC), a non-profit company whose loans to small and medium-sized businesses have created nearly half a million jobs since 1981. Being openly critical of the apartheid system during that era, both at home and abroad, he has recently been quoted by President Thabo Mbeki as the man who called upon the Apartheid leadership to “do something brave” and create partnership with the black majority in the ’80s.


In 2004, he was voted 28th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.


Rupert established the tobacco company “Voorbrand” in the 1940’s. He soon renamed it Rembrandt Ltd., whose overseas tobacco interests were consolidated into Rothmans in 1972.


In 1988, the Rembrandt group founded the Swiss luxury goods company, Richemont, which in turn acquired Rembrandt’s shares in Rothmans. Richemont also owns such luxury brands as Cartier (jewellery); Alfred Dunhill and Sulka (designer clothing); Seeger (leather bags); Piaget, Baume & Mercier and Vacheron Constantin (Swiss watches) and Montblanc (writing instruments).


In 1995, Rembrandt and Richemont consolidated their respective tobacco interests into Rothmans International, which was at the time the world’s fourth largest cigarette manufacturer.


In 1999, Rothmans International merged with British American Tobacco (BAT), the world’s second largest cigarette producer. Remgro now holds a 10% and Richemont an 18.6% share in BAT.


Rupert’s eldest son, Johann Rupert, is now the CEO of Richemont and chairman of Remgro.


The Rupert family is also deeply involved in the South African wine and liquor industry, owning the L’omarins and La Motte Wine Estates and having a stake in Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons, the wine-making partnership between the Rupert and Rothschild families (at the time of his death due to a car crash in 2001, Rupert’s youngest son, Anthonij [4] , was head of Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons.)


The Ruperts also partially control two of South Africa’s largest wine merchant houses, Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (SFW) and Distillers Corporation, who together produce one of every six bottles of wine in South Africa and nearly eighty percent of the country’s brandy. These two companies have merged to form Distell.


Among other interests, the Rupert Group also owns South Africa’s second-largest chain of private hospitals, the Medi-Clinic Corporation, with 5,500 beds.


Rupert was a founding member of the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and it was in his role as the president of the organisation’s South African branch that he took a lead in the creation of trans-frontier parks (also known as trans-frontier conservation areas (TFCAs) or “peace parks”), such as the Lubombo trans-frontier conservation area. He also established the 1001 Club: A Nature Trust in 1970 to fund the organization.


With an initial grant of 1.2 million Rand (US$ 260,000) from the Rupert Nature Foundation, the Peace Parks Foundation was established on 1 February 1997 in order to facilitate the establishment of TFCAs in southern Africa. Nelson Mandela, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Anton Rupert were the founding patrons of the Peace Parks Foundation


 


 


Johann Peter Rupert (born 1 June 1950) is the eldest son of the late Afrikaner South African business tycoon Anton Rupert and his wife Huberte Rupert. He is the chairman of the Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont as well as of the South Africa-based companies VenFin and Remgro.


Rupert grew up in the South African town of Stellenbosch where he still lives, and where he also attended the University of Stellenbosch, studying economics and company law. He dropped out of university to pursue a career in business but in 2004 Stellenbosch University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Economics.


Rupert and his wife Gaynor have three children.


Described as “reclusive” by the Financial Times of London, Rupert rarely gives interviews and shuns public events.


Rupert served his business apprenticeship in New York, where he worked for Chase Manhattan for two years and for Lazard Freres for three years. He then returned to South Africa in 1979 and founded Rand Merchant Bank of which he was CEO. He started the Small Business Development Corporation in same year (+/- 500,000 jobs created since inception).





  • 1989: Rupert was appointed Vice Chairman of the Rembrandt Group.




  • 1993: Received the M.S. Louw Award by the A.H.I. (“Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut”).


  • 1994: Appointed Chairman of the Small Business Development Corporation Limited (“SBDC”).


  • 1995: Formed Nethold SA, bought into Telepui and Mediaset.


  • 1995: Privatised Rothmans International plc. Merged Rothmans International and Rembrandt Tobacco.


  • 1996: Elected Sunday Times Business Times’s Businessman of the Year for second time.


  • 1996: Merged Nethold into Canal+.



  • 1997: Appointed to the Advisory Council of GEMS Oriental and General Fund.




  • 2000: Restructured Rembrandt Group Limited and formed Remgro Limited and VenFin Limited. Appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA. Voted “Most influential Business Leader” in South Africa by CEO’s of top 100 Listed Companies


  • 2000: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Economics by the University of Stellenbosch.


  • 2000: Rupert played a key role in the establishment of Vodacom, the leading cellular communication specialist group in Africa, as well as in Tracker Network (Pty) Ltd, which specialised in stolen vehicle recovery systems. He sold Vodacom to Vodafone for R21bn via the restructuring of VenFin.


  • 2004: Although he continued as Executive Chairman, he resigned as the CEO of Richemont in September 2004 after 15-month period of leading the company’s turnaround.


  • 2006: According to the 2006 edition of Forbes‘ list of the world’s richest people, the Rupert family is 207th, with a worth estimated at approximately USD 3.3 billion.


  • 2007 Elected to South African Sports Hall of Fame


  • 2008 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Commerce from Nelson Mandela University.

Rupert is a former cricketer and helped to create the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which funds 65 projects globally, with the goal of using sport to tackle social issues, having a particular emphasis on underprivileged children. He co-founded the Sports Science Institute[1] with his friends Morne du Plessis and Tim Noakes.


Rupert also developed the Gary Player-designed, Leopard Creek Golf Club in Mpumalanga, South Africa which is one of South Africa’s best golf courses, and rated number 25 outside the United States of America (Golf Digest))


He serves as Chairman of the South African PGA Tour and Chairman of the South African Golf Development Board. Following his younger brother Anthonij’s tragic death in a car accident in 2001 he took over the L’Ormarins wine estate. Anthonij, was head of Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons. Rupert initiated a project to enhance the farm in memory of his late brother.


He was council member of The South Africa Foundation and trustee of the Southern African Nature Foundation, The Institute of Directors in Southern Africa, Business South Africa and Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and Managing Trustee and member of the investment committee, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. He served on the Daimler Chrysler International Advisory Board.


Following in the footsteps of his father, Anton, Johann Rupert is also a committed conservationist.


He was once rumoured to have been interested in buying the English Premier League football side Blackburn Rovers, but he subsequently emphatically denied it. In an interview with the South African online publication Moneyweb, Rupert explained in detail how the confusing international report had come about.[2] Blackburn Rovers has a strong link to South African football through both former National team captain Aaron Mokoena and striker Benni McCarthy who were both on Blackburn’s books. He was also linked with the South African consortium that made a £300million bid for Newcastle United, on the 1st October 2008. He went on to deny these links on the 3rd October 2008, saying he has “absolutely no interest and no knowledge” (of the takeover bid).


When the British design magazine Wallpaper* described the Afrikaans language as “the ugliest language in the world” in its September 2005 edition (in reference to the Afrikaans Language Monument), Rupert responded by withdrawing advertising for his companies’ brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill from the magazine.[3]


 


Mosima Gabriel Sexwale (born 5 March 1953), commonly known as Tokyo Sexwale, is a South African businessman and former politician, anti-apartheid activist, and political prisoner. His nickname of “Tokyo” is derived from his involvement with the sport of karate as a youth. A charismatic leader, Sexwale was imprisoned on Robben Island for his anti-apartheid activities, alongside figures such as Nelson Mandela. After the 1994 general election—the first universal franchise election in South Africa—Sexwale became the premier of Gauteng Province. He retired from politics in 1998 and subsequently became a major business leader. Sexwale is married to a white paralegal he met while in Robben Island, Judy van Vuuren; they have two children, Gabrielle and Chris


Sexwale was born in the township of Orlando West in Soweto. His father was a clerk at Johannesburg’s General Hospital. Sexwale grew up amid the turmoil of the black township’s upheaval; he was eight when he heard the explosions at a nearby post office of the first bombs in the African National Congress’s guerrilla campaign. Sexwale graduated from Orlando West High School in 1973.


Sexwale became a member of the Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement in the late 1960s and became a local leader of the radical South African Students’ Movement. In the early 1970s, he joined the African National Congress’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (“spear of the nation”). While in Swaziland, he completed a Certificate in Business Studies at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. In 1975, Sexwale went into exile, undergoing military officers’ training in the Soviet Union, where he specialized in military engineering


 


Upon his return to South Africa in 1976, Sexwale was captured after a skirmish with the South African security forces and, along with 11 others, was charged and later convicted of terrorism and conspiracy to overthrow the government after an almost two-year long trial in the Pretoria Supreme Court. In 1977, Sexwale was sent to the Robben Island maximum-security prison to serve an 18-year sentence. While imprisoned at Robben Island, he studied for a B. Comm. degree at the University of South Africa. Sexwale was released in June 1990 under the terms of the Groote Schuur Agreement between the National Party government and the African National Congress. He had spent 13 years in prison.


During this time he was represented in part by a young white paralegal named Judy van Vuuren. They began a personal relationship while he remained in prison, and soon after his release, in 1990, they became married.


[edit] Political career


After his release, Sexwale returned to Johannesburg, where he served as head of the public liaison department of the African National Congress Headquarters. He was subsequently appointed the head of special projects, reporting to the ANC’s military headquarters. In September 1990, he was elected as a member of the executive committee of the ANC in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) region. He became the chairperson of the ANC in the PWV region in 1991, a position he held until his resignation in late 1997.


After the South African elections in April 1994, Sexwale was elected as the first premier of the new PWV Province (renamed Gauteng Province in December 1994). In this role, he was credited with bringing peace to several politically volatile townships. Sexwale left politics for the corporate sector in 1998. The reasons for this was never made completely clear, but was reportedly due to feeling stifled by central government restrictions as well as becoming exhausted by internal African National Congress intrigues. Further speculation is that Tokyo left politics due to strong disagreements with the then Vice-President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. Other speculation is that his marriage opened business opportunities in the white-dominated financial sectors that allowed him opportunities not open to other black leaders. Tokyo Sexwale, Cyril Ramaphosa and Thabo Mbeki were possible candidates jostling for the presidency after Nelson Mandela stepped down. Once Thabo Mbeki appeared as the favourite candidate, both Sexwale and Ramaphosa left politics to follow successful careers as businessmen.


As of 2007, the media has started speculating that Sexwale will campaign for the leadership of the ANC, and thus for the presidency before the 2009 South African Presidential Elections.Sexwale recently admitted on BBC’s Hard Talk that if asked to stand for the elections as party president by structures of the ANC, he would strongly consider it. [1] He did indeed stand and both he and Thabo Mbeki were ousted by Jacob Zuma.


Upon leaving the public sector, Sexwale founded Mvelaphanda Holdings (mvelaphanda is the Venda word for “progress”), a company of which he is still executive chairman. Mvelaphanda is primarily focused on the mining, energy and related sectors. Some of Sexwale’s main interests are oil and diamond mining, for which he has been granted concessions across Africa and Russia; these interests are controlled by a subsidiary of Mvelaphanda Holdings called Mvelaphanda Resources, of which he is chairman.


In particular, Sexwale has become a major player in the diamond industry, with his company reportedly being the third biggest after De Beers and JFPI Corporation. He was praised by no less a figure than Harry Oppenheimer, the patriarch of the Anglo-American and De Beers corporations, as having an understanding of the South African and international diamond mining industry that few can equal.


Sexwale also chairs companies such as the Trans Hex Group Ltd. and Northam Platinum Ltd.; in addition, he is a director of companies such as Absa Group Limited, Allied Electronics Corporation Ltd. (more commonly known as Altech) and Gold Fields Ltd. (the latter two positions are non-executive).


He is also known as a philanthropist and is a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Global Philanthropists Circle of the Synergos Institute, the Business Trust and the Robben Island Ex-Prisoners Trust. Furthermore, he is a patron of societies such as Johannesburg Child and Family Welfare Society, Streetwise South Africa (an organisation dedicated to assisting street children), Save the Family Fund (catering for families and communities ravaged by apartheid violence) and The Sky is No Limit (which aims to expose disadvantaged youths to hi-tech education in computers and aviation).


In 2005, he hosted the South African version of the reality game show The Apprentice.


He currently serves as the seat holder for A1 Team South Africa, racing in A1 Grand Prix, and as a member of the organising committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa.


Since leaving active politics, Sexwale has not made himself available for any elected ANC position again, but he remains active in his local party branch.


However, on 7 January 2007, The Sunday Times reported that Sexwale was campaigning for a leadership position within the ANC, which put him into position to replace Thabo Mbeki as President of South Africa in 2009.[1] He was elected to the ANC’s 80-member National Executive Committee in December 2007 in 10th place, with 2,198 votes.[2]


Sexwale has two children by a first wife, and two children by his second wife, Judy Van Vuuren, a white paralegal worker whom he met on Robben Island. Following his financial success, he moved into the previously mostly-white suburb of Illovo with his mixed race family.


His children now attend an exclusive private school, and his wife was hijacked while picking their son up from school.


In 2001 Sexwale was accused, along with Cyril Ramaphosa and Mathews Phosa, of plotting to depose President Thabo Mbeki. Sexwale denied the charges and all three received the backing of Nelson Mandela; they were later exonerated from all accusations.


In 2002, he was refused a visa to enter the United States, which kept him from attending the listing of Gold Fields (a company in which he holds a 15 percent stake) on the New York Stock Exchange. It later transpired that he, along with many prominent South African anti-apartheid figures such as Nelson Mandela and South African cabinet minister Sidney Mufamadi, were still on that country’s list of global terrorists. After initiating legal action (going so far as to having papers served on the U.S. Department of State) and following personal intervention by Condoleezza Rice, Sexwale and the others received ten-year waivers from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of Homeland Security, as the government felt that permanently delisting them would mean changing the law, which would be a lengthy process. in April 2008 the waiver was lifted and the ANC members along with the ANC were removed from the terrorist list in the USA following strong intervention by Condoleezza Rice. USA spokesperson was quoted as saying,”it is a disgrace that a country like the United States still has a ban on statesmen that fought the oppression of their people. It is disgusting that Nelson Mandela still has to apply for special permission to enter Washington DC.”


In 2005, Sexwale was roundly criticised for being “indecisive” during the live finale of the South African version of The Apprentice, which he fronted on SABC3. Both finalists, Zanele Batyashe, 24, and Khomotso Choma, 34, were hired in the finale which aired September 22. [3] [4] [5]


A further black mark against Sexwale is the appearance of his name in a United Nations report on illegal transactions under the oil-for-food programme.[6]


Sexwale has received many honours and awards, including the Légion d’honneur from France, an honorary doctorate in technology from Nottingham Trent University, an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from De Montfort University, the Order of the Freedom of Havana (Cuba), the Cross of Valour (Ruby Class) from South Africa, and the Reach and Teach Leadership Award, from the United States. He is also chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology.


Sexwale is also an honorary colonel in the South African Air Force and chair of the Council for the Support of National Defence, whose aim is to encourage part-time military service as well as building support in society for those who wish to serve in the military as volunteers. In 2004, he was voted 43rd in the list of “Top 100 Great South Africans“.


Sexwale holds positions in many international organisations, such as President of the South African/Russian Business, Technological and Cultural Association and Vice President of the South African/Japanese Business Forum. He is also an Honorary Consul General of Finland in South Africa


 


Schabir Shaik is a South African businessman from the Berea, Durban, who rose to prominence due to his close association with former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma. On 2 June 2005, he was found guilty of corruption and fraud, which also led to the dismissal of Zuma two weeks later from his position as Deputy President.


A South African of Indian origin, Shaik studied electrical engineering at the M.L. Sultan Technikon, but was caught cheating in a High Voltage Engineering T5 exam on 28 May 1990 and was barred for 12 months. He claimed to have obtained a master’s degree, but no record of this was found at the Technikon; he later admitted he did not earn the qualification.


He had a long-standing friendship with Jacob Zuma, who needed assistance with his finances after returning from political exile in Mozambique in 1990. Zuma had been elected Chairperson of the African National Congress, and Shaik assisted him financially, mostly in the form of interest-free loans with no date of repayment.


On 27 February 1995, Shabir Shaik established a company known as Nkobi Holdings, using the family name of the late ANC Treasurer Thomas Nkobi, without consent and approval of the Nkobi family.


Nkobi Holding was initially wholly owned by Shaik. The shareholding went through various permutations subsequently, however Shaik was at all relevant times a director of, and exercised effective control over, all the corporate entities within the Nkobi group.


In 1994 he failed in an effort that would have seen Malaysian partners paying off the ANC’s huge R 40 million overdraft, which was taken out in preparation for the 1994 general election. His brother, Chippy Shaik, was in charge of arms acquisition at the Department of Defence, which allowed Shaik to bid on a lucrative contract to supply Valour class patrol corvettes to the South African Navy.


On 21 May 1996, Nkobi Holdings and the French defence contractor Thomson-CSF went into a joint venture as Thomson Holdings, a South African company. It tendered for various contracts, among which the upgrading of Durban International Airport, a national identity card, road projects for the N3 and N4 highways, the third cellular telephone network, and smart card technology. A company called Kobitech which is part of the Nkobi Holdings group, was initially a one-third shareholder in a consortium (under the name Prodiba) to produce the South African driving licence card. The first card was produced on 2 March 1998, a contract that was initially awarded for 5 years, later extended and then renewed for another 5 year period ending on 28 March 2009. During the second half of 2007 Kobitech sold their share in Prodiba to one of the remaining shareholders, Face Technologies.


Shaik was put on trial for fraud and corruption at the Durban High Court from 11 October 2004. During the course of the trial, Shaik admitted that he falsified his qualifications and business achievements.


The trial ended on 4 May 2005, with Judge Hilary Squires delivering his verdict on 2 June. Shaik was found guilty on two counts of corruption and one count of fraud, with judge Squires stating in his 165-page verdict that there was “overwhelming” evidence of a corrupt relationship between Shaik and Zuma. The fraud charge related to testimony by Ahmed Paruk, Shaik’s auditor, that Shaik held a meeting with him and Shaik’s financial manager, where it was agreed that false journal entries be made in order to alter Nkobi Holdings’ financial statements. The second corruption charge relates to alleged attempts to solicit a bribe to Zuma from Thomson CSF.


On 8 June he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of the two counts of corruption, as well as 3 years on the count of fraud. The sentences will run concurrently, giving him an effective 15 year prison term. He has been given leave to appeal against this sentence on 26 July, and his bail has been extended until then. His appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal failed on 6 November[1]


As a consequence of the ruling, Zuma was dismissed from his post as deputy president by President Thabo Mbeki on 14 June.


On 2 October 2007 his appeal to the Constitutional Court for his conviction and sentence for corruption and fraud was turned down with the court ruling that “An appeal against conviction and sentence does not bear any reasonable prospect of success”.[2]


However, the court ruled that there might be a constitutional issue related to the seizure of assets belonging to him and his company and granted leave to appeal on that point. The court dismissed this appeal in April 2008.[3] Prosecutor in the case, Anton Steynberg, said afterwards that Shaik’s only option now is to petition the President Thabo Mbeki.


 


 


Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist and first African in space.[1][2] Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2008, provides leadership for the Ubuntu Linux distribution.


He currently lives in London and holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom


Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Free State, South Africa.


After going to school at Diocesan College, Shuttleworth obtained a Business Science degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town.


Shuttleworth founded Thawte in 1995, which specialised in digital certificates and Internet security and then sold it to VeriSign in December 1999, earning R 3.5 billion (about US$ 575 million at the time).


In September 2000, Shuttleworth formed HBD Venture Capital, a business incubator and venture capital provider.


In March 2004 he formed Canonical Ltd., for the promotion and commercial support of free software projects.


In the 1990s, Shuttleworth participated as a developer of Debian, a Linux distribution. In 2004 he returned to the free software world by funding the development of Ubuntu, a Linux distribution based on Debian, through his company Canonical Ltd.


In 2001 he formed the Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to social innovation which also funds educational and free and open source software projects in South Africa, such as the Freedom Toaster.


In 2005 he founded the Ubuntu Foundation and made an initial investment of 10 million dollars. In the Ubuntu project, Shuttleworth is often referred to with the tongue-in-cheek title Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life, abbreviated SABDFL.[3] To come up with a list of names of people to hire for the project, Mr. Shuttleworth took six months of Debian mailing list archives with him whilst travelling to the Antarctic aboard the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in early 2004.[4] In September 2005, he purchased a 65% stake of Impi Linux.[5]


On 15 October 2006 it was announced that Mark Shuttleworth became the first patron of KDE, the highest level of sponsorship available.[6]


 


Shuttleworth gained worldwide fame on 25 April 2002 as a spaceflight participant aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission, paying approximately US$ 20 million. Two days later, the Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, where he spent eight days participating in experiments related to AIDS and genome research. On 5 May 2002, he returned to Earth. In order to participate on the flight, Shuttleworth had to undergo one year of training and preparation, including seven months spent in Star City, Russia.


While in space he had a radio conversation with Nelson Mandela and a 14 year old South African girl, Michelle Foster, who asked him to marry her. He politely dodged the question, stating that he was “very honoured at the question” before moving the conversation on.[7] The terminally ill Miss Foster’s conversation was enabled by the Reach for a Dream foundation.[8][9]


He has his own private jet, a Bombardier Global Express,[10] which is often referred to as Canonical One[11][12][13] but is in fact owned through his HBD Venture Capital company. The dragon depicted on the side of the plane is “Norman”, the HBD Venture Capital mascot.


 


Patrick Soon-Shiong (b. 1952) is a South African-American surgeon and founder, chairman, and CEO of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company developing cancer treatment.


Soon-Shiong was born in South Africa to Chinese parents, who fled from China during World War II. He graduated from University of Witwatersrand with a medical degree, finishing fourth out of 189.


On July 7, 2008 it was reported that Soon-Shiong, who owns more than 80 percent of American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP), agreed to sell his stake to Fresenius SE for 3.7 billion US dollars.[1] Soon-Shiong founded APP in 1997. Soon-Shiong joined the faculty of UCLA Medical School in 1983. He left UCLA in 1991 to start VivoRx, a diabetes research firm. Forbes estimates his fortune is $3.5 billion, ranking him #307 among billionaires. [2]


 


António Tony Teixeira is a South African businessman. He was born in Portugal but emigrated to South Africa, later naturalizing himself. He lived and studied in Nigel, and later dropped out of school to work at SASOL mining company , later he moved to the transport industry. He is the owner and CEO of the oil, diamonds and gold trade company Energem.


In 2003 Teixeira was selected by Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum as CEO of the A1 Grand Prix series.


 


Tony Trahar (born 1949 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a South African businessman and former chairman of Anglo American.


Trahar was educated at St John’s College and the University of the Witwatersrand, after which he qualified as a chartered accountant.


He joined Anglo American in 1974 and later was an assistant to Gavin Relly and was appointed finance director in 1982. Trahar became the managing director of Anglo American’s paper company, Mondi, in 1986. He succeeded Julian Ogilvie Thompson as CEO of Anglo American in 2000.


 


Bill Venter or William Peter Venter born 29 July 1934 Johannesburg, is a South African businessman, entrepreneur and industrialist.


Venter has achieved significantly in the electronics, telecommunications and power electrical sectors, both in South Africa and abroad. He is chairman of Allied Electronics Corp Ltd (Altron), Bytes Technology Group (BTG) and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He is on the Board of Directors of Bytes Technology Group (BTG), Power Technologies (Pty) Ltd (Powertech), Allied Electronics Corp Ltd, Telemetrix Plc, UEC Multi-Media, Allied Technologies Ltd (Altech), AMIC Ltd., Nedcor Bank Ltd. and Standard Telephones and Cables SA. He is a Trustee of Pres Mandela’s Children’s Trust Fund


 


2006 Top 100 Lifetime Achiever (Sunday Times Business Times)



  • 1996 Engineer of the Year

  • 1991 Order for Meritorious Service (Gold) (State President of South Africa) for significant contribution to South Africa’s electronics industry

  • 1989 Leadership in Practice Award (University of South Africa SBL)

  • 1984 Top Executive in South Africa (Management)

  • 1978 Top Five Businessmen (Business Times)

  • 1977 Marketing Man of the Year



He has four sons and a daughter. His two sons, Robert and Craig, were from his first marriage to Jean Georgina Poole. In 1994, Edith, Venter’s second wife and mother of two of his sons, was awarded a record R12-million divorce settlement [1]. She was married for the third time in 2005 to Johannesburg businessman Garth Carstens.



  • Robert Eben “Robbie” Venter, born 7 May 1960, is chairman of Aberdare Cables and Director of Bytes Technology Group Ltd., Allied Technologies Ltd (Altech)., and Group Chief Executive of Allied Electronics Corp Ltd (Altron). He studied at University of California Los Angeles and obtained degrees in Bachelor of Science (Economics) and Master of Business Administration.


  • Craig Gordon Venter, born 4 July 1962, is Executive Director of Altron, Chief Executive Officer of Altech, Director of Altech Netstar, Altech Autopage Cellular and various other wholly-owned subsidiaries, Chairman of Altech Autopage Holdings and Arrow Altech Holdings, Altech Alcom Matomo, Altech UEC Multi-Media and Altech NamITech and a Member of the Altron Executive Committee and Risk Management Committee. He studied at University of California Los Angeles and obtained a BSc (Econ), a BA (Psychology) and an MBA and MSc (Management Science) from University of Southern California.

 


Albert Wessels (1 October 1908 – 22 July 1991) was a South African industrialist and the founder of Toyota South Africa.


Toyota South Africa can trace its roots back to 1961, when Wessels obtained a permit to import ten Toyopet Stout pickup trucks (popularly known as bakkies in South Africa) from Japan. Toyota products proved to be very popular in South Africa and by 1968 Toyota had become the largest producer of commercial vehicles in the country; in the same year it was also chosen as “company of the year” by the South African financial press.


Albert Wessels was succeeded as chief executive officer of Toyota South Africa by his son, Bert Wessels, in 1988; Bert also became the company’s executive chairman on his father’s death.


He married the South African poet Elisabeth Eybers in 1937, but the couple – who had three daughters and a son – divorced in 1961. However, the Albert Wessels Trust continued to fund the Elisabeth Eybers Prize.


Wessels published an autobiography, Farmer to Industrialist, in 1987.


 


 

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