Richer than the Swazi king

ONE of the facts that strikes you immediately when browsing the rich lists is that even though Natie Kirsh was born in South Africa, he is always listed as a Swaziland citizen.

Needless to say, his wealth, estimated at between $3.1-billion (R33.4-billion) and $5.1-billion, makes him easily Swaziland’s richest man — even richer than the country’s absolute monarch, King Mswati III, who is said to have a fortune of $200-million.

It is in Swaziland that he built his first business empire and developed a reputation for philanthropy.

In the small country, Kirsh provided start-up capital for more than 11 000 small businesses and financed a project to make the country’s high school graduates the first in Africa to be computer literate. (His low-key office in Johannesburg’s ultra-rich suburb of Hyde Park has several framed letters from children in Swaziland who have written and sent pictures thanking him for his help.)

Kirsh was born in South Africa, but moved to Swaziland in 1959. He chaired the country’s Electricity Board, built its first power stations and still has a thriving industrial business there.

In 1969, he moved back to South Africa, expanding Kirsh Industries to wholesale food distribution, supermarkets and commercial property development.

Then, at the age of 54, a deal between Kirsh Industries and Sanlam turned sour — and Kirsh packed up and moved to the US.

“I wasn’t a pauper, but the big South African monster was gone,” he said.

Now he moves between homes in London, New York and Swaziland. He visits Johannesburg and Cape Town more to catch up socially than to do business.

But he remains close to Swaziland, so much so that he was the attaché for the Swazi Olympic team in London. Chuckling, he describes the scenario walking into the Olympic Stadium at the opening of the Games with the team of three athletes — one swimmer and two runners — as well as the chairman and the flag carrier.

One of the things the ANC Youth League highlighted in recent press statements as supposed evidence of Kirsh’s “ulterior motives” was that he is the biggest shareholder in Magal Security Systems in Israel, a company the league says is “complicit in the construction of Israel’s Illegal Apartheid Wall”.

But what the league did not say was that Magal is the world’s leading perimeter-security company, which Kirsh bought in 1976 when he started Jetro in the US.

Magal operates in 75 countries around the world. It does borders for Israel and perimeter security for Buckingham Palace.

The startling success of Jetro in the US is perhaps the biggest untold story in Kirsh’s business career. Jetro Holdings, of which he still owns 63%, is the largest food cash-and-carry wholesaling business in the US. It sends 5 000 trucks into 93 restaurant depots and 10 Jetro Cash & Carry warehouses every day. Although it is a private company, estimates are that it made revenues of $7.5-billion last year.

This sort of success has not gone unnoticed by the Chinese, whose government recently asked Kirsh to set up a food wholesaling business in that country. It is a plan still on the back burner, even though Kirsh is at an age when many would have retired.