Patrice MOTSEPE

Biography :

Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe(b. January 28,1962), is one of the richest and powerful man in South Africa.Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is Executive Chairman of African Rainbow Minerals Limited, ARM, a leading, niche-diversified mining and minerals company, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the non-executive Chairman of Harmony and the Deputy Chairman of Sanlam. His various business responsibilities include being President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), which is the voice of organised business in South Africa. He is also president of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.

He figured 503 in the Forbes 2008 year list of the richest people in the world, third and first black man n South Africa just behind Nicky Oppenheimer and Johann Rupert.

Mr. Motsepe began his business career as a child when he would wake early to help his entrepreneurial father by selling liquor to mine workers at his father's shop. "I must have been about eight when my dad said one day, We make so much money when you're behind the counter you should take over the business when you grow up. But it was hard work, from 6am to 8pm. I soon realised I needed to choose a career that would keep me away from that shop! That's how I came to decide when was only eight that I'd become a lawyer."He went on to earn a BA from Swaziland University and a LLB from Wits University.

In 1994 he became the first black lawyer to be made a partner at the law firm Bowman Gilfillan, where he specialized in mining and business law before becoming restless. He then shifted to the mining industry. He Started a contract mining operation called Future Mining which provided various services to Vaal Reefs gold mine, now part of AngloGold. Unable to secure a loan, he ran his business from a briefcase for the first eight months.

Mr.Motsepe formed African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) in 1997 and acquired a number of marginal shafts at Vaal Reefs in January 1998 on favorable financial terms, followed by the purchase of other marginal shafts owned by AngloGold in the Free State.

Today he's the biggest single shareholder of the world's fifth-largest gold mining company. His firm, African Rainbow Minerals, controls 19.8 per cent of Harmony. His family trust owns 43.1 per cent of ARM, valued at approximately $1 billion.

Harmony Gold Mining Company specializes in turning old digs into new digs. Harmony is South Africa's largest gold miner, after acquiring ARMgold in 2003, and the sixth largest in the world. The company buys mature gold mines with lagging production and turns them into low-cost, high-productivity mines. It had 2003 revenues of $1.2 billion and has 50,718 employees.

He is married to Dr Precious Makgosi Maloi and have three sons.

Source: africansuccess.org