Career

Patrice was born to Augustine Motsepe, a schoolteacher turned small businessman, who owned a Spaza shop popular with black mine workers. It was from this shop that Motsepe learned basic business principles from his father as well as first hand exposure to mining.

He earned a bachelor of arts at the University of Swaziland and a law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and became the first black partner in the law firm Bowman Gilfillan in 1994, the same year Nelson Mandela was elected the country's first black president. He specialised in mining and business law at a time when the new government had begun the process of promoting black empowerment and entrepreneurship. Motsepe soon founded a mining services venture to clean gold dust from inside mine shafts, implementing a system of worker remuneration that combined a low base salary with a profit-sharing bonus.

In 1997, with gold prices at a low, he purchased marginal gold mines from AngloGold under favourable finance terms. This was repeated in a string of deals and Motsepe set up a firm to begin buying the operating mines that would become the source of his wealth. In 1999 he teamed up with two of his associates to form Greene and Partners Investments.

Motsepe won South Africa's Best Entrepreneur Award in 2002. In 2004 he was voted 39th in the SABC3's Great South Africans (SABC being South African Broadcasting Corporation, the government funded state broadcaster). In 2008 he was 503rd richest person in the world, according to the Forbes World Billionaires List.

In that same issue of Forbes magazine, it was noted that the source of his wealth was not through any entrepreneurial zeal but through his association with the ruling political party the African National Congress (ANC).

But for all the adulation, in South Africa such success comes with a price: being labeled an oligarch. Even many blacks have complained that the country's 1994 transformation from apartheid to democracy has benefited only the elite few. The criticism stems from laws that require substantial black ownership in certain industries, including mining. A handful of politically connected individuals have grown enormously wealthy as a result. One of Motsepe's sisters, Bridgette Radebe, who's married to transport minister Jeffrey Radebe, heads a mining company and is said to be among the wealthiest black women in the country. "It's called crony capitalism," says Moeletsi Mbeki, 62, brother of South Africa's former president and an outspoken critic of the race-preference laws. "It's an anticompetitive system."

Since 2004, he has been a non-executive director of Absa Group and Sanlam.

In 2002 when it was listed on the JSE Security Exchange, African Rainbow Minerals joined with Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. and the company's name changed to ARMgold. Motsepe is also the founder of African Rainbow Minerals Platinum (Proprietary) Limited and ARM Consortium Limited, which later equally split ownership with Anglo American Platinum Corp Ltd. From 2005, Motsepe was Chairman of Teal Exploration and Mining Incorporated. Motsepe is also chairman of Ubuntu-Botho Investments, Non-Executive chairman of Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd. and deputy Chairman of Sanlam Ltd. Motsepe has been president of South Africa's Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Personal Life

Patrice is married to Dr. Precious Makgosi, the couple have three children. Patrice is also the brother of Tshepo Motsepe and the brother in law of the Deputy President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]