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Not in a thousand years

07 December 2007 Gareth Stokes

Last weekend the Sunday Times published their annual rich list. It is a list of the wealthiest individuals (based on JSE-Listed shareholdings) in South Africa. We doubt the list even scrapes the surface given the huge wealth held by individuals in unliste

Who is the richest in the land?

Ironically the richest man on the list is Lakshmi Mittal. His JSE-Listed investments top R27.3bn at 31 March 2007. The source of this fortune is steel giant Arcelor-Mittal (which years ago traded as Iscor. Second place goes to Nicky Oppenheimer through his shares in the world’s largest diamond producer De Beers. Patrice Motsepe’s R13bn is enough to secure third place.

Others with more than a billion in listed shares include Johan Rupert (through luxury goods company Richemont), Bill Venter, Bill Lynch (Imperial Holdings) and banking sector executives Laurie Dippenaar, Paul Harris, GT Ferreira and Jannie Mouton. The only woman in this elite club is Elisabeth Bradley through her share in Wesco Investments Limited.

South Africans hardly feature on the global stage. Lakshmi Mittal is ranked fifth in the world by Forbes Magazine with worldwide holdings of some $32bn. Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway investment guru, Warren Buffet fill the first and second spots. They are worth $56 and $52bn respectively. It must be nice to round off ones personal wealth to the nearest billion!

Staggering annual remuneration

South Africa’s largest companies are obliged to publish information on what their directors earn. The Sunday Times analysis of these numbers is simply mind blowing. Salaries pale into insignificance when earnings from dividends and share options are added to the pot. In the 2006 calendar year Edgars CEO Stephen Ross topped the salary list with R78.149m. Second was Pieter Cox of Sasol with a get-by annual package totalling R72.481m. It is interesting to note that number 100 on this list, Keith Rumbles, pocketed R11.248m for his troubles at Impala Platinum. Nice money if you can get it!

But South Africans come nowhere when compared with global remuneration. German citizens were dumfounded recently when Wendelin Wiedeking, chief executive of luxury car maker Porsche, walked away with a Euro 70m bonus. Not bad for a year’s work – especially when one considers the thousand of German’s earning minimum wage of around Euro 4 per hour. At that rate one would have to a 40-hour week, without a single holiday for more than 8 400 years (assuming no tax is deducted) to earn a similar amount. Five other executives shared a further Euro 60m.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor in Germany is considerable. But what the latest South African rich list confirms is that the divide between rich and poor in our country is one of the largest anywhere in the world. A gap between rich and poor is inevitably; but how does one compare R70m per annum at executive level to a security guard, working a 12-hour shift six days a week, earning a paltry R30 000 per year?

South Africa remains race obsessed

Our only problem with the Sunday Times article is the sub-head. “Rich get richer thanks to JSE Bull Run, but they’re still mostly white.” It is time for South Africa’s race obsession to be shelved once and for all. Why does the fact that there are ONLY three black billionaires (and 20 black individuals in the top 100) have to be stressed? The reports compilers confess that billions or rand in un-listed assets are not included in the report, meaning there are thousands of South Africans from all racial backgrounds who are not featured.

Besides, it is almost unnatural for a person to amass this kind of wealth in a period as short as a decade. Black South Africans have had little more than that to set out on the path to real wealth. Over time the list will reflect the demographics of the country.

Editor’s thoughts:
This rich list probably provides some answers for those of you were wondering about the ridiculous price-tags on South Africa’s sought after beachfront properties and marvel at the number of Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris burbling along our roads. There are thousands of us capable of splashing out R5m or more on a house – and R1m or more on a car. Today’s question is whether the righting of Apartheid wrongs should include the creation of black (or previously disadvantaged) billionaires? Post your comments below, or send an email to gareth@fanews.co.za

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