South African Only Black Billionaire Donates Half His Wealth to Charity

South African billionaire, Patrice Motsepe is set to give away half of his wealth to charity. Motsepe who Forbes estimates is worth about $2.65 billion by doing this joins other billionaires around the world such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who have similarly pledged to give away half of their wealth to charity through an initiative called the “Giving Pledge.”


Speaking on his recent decision, Motsepe said: “[My wife] Precious and I will contribute at least half of the funds generated by our family assets to the Motsepe Foundation to be used during our lifetime and beyond to improve the lifestyles and living conditions of the poor, disabled, unemployed, women, youth, workers and marginalised South Africans, Africans and people around the world.”


Motsepe who is South Africa’s first black billionaire was born in the black township of Soweto, got trained as a lawyer and became the first black partner at Bowman Gilfillan, a prestigious commercial law firm in Johannesburg. He later own got into the contracting business doing mine scut work and went on to buy low-producing gold mine shafts in 1994 reportedly turning them around using a lean management style.His company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has interests in  platinum, nickel, chrome, iron, manganese, coal, copper and gold. He also owns a stake in publicly traded financial services company, Sanlam and owns the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.