SA trailblazers transform start-ups into global stars

SOME of the illustrious entrepreneurs listed before the dawn of the new South Africa. Here they are by sector:

Retail: Whitey Basson of Shoprite has over three decades made his company the largest in food retail in SA.

He was followed by Mark Lamberti, who since the late 1980s built Massmart to what it is today.

Laurie Chiapinni and Stewart Cohen built apparel retailer Mr Price over the past 27 years.

Doyen Raymond Ackerman modernised retailing in SA, but Christo Wiese is top of the pile with huge interests in Shoprite and Pepkor (through Brait).

Financial services: The trio of Laurie Dippenaar, GT Ferreira and Paul Harris built what is now FirstRand within four decades.

Stephen Koseff founded and grew Investec since the 1970s. Nicky Newton-King of the JSE Limited was in the team that listed the company in 2006.

Doyen Donald Gordon started Liberty Life (now Holdings) in the late 1950s to massively challenge the majors. exploits of Koos Bekker at Naspers are well known , having built a media group worth R551-billion in value within 30 years.

Phuthuma Nhleko grew MTN in the 2000s by acquiring companies and licences in tough markets and created a R384-billion behemoth.

Mining: Mick Davis built Xstrata into a multibillionrand group from the early 2000s before selling it to Glencore to form GlencoreXstrata (with R779-billion in market cap), led by another SA-born leader Ivan Glasenberg.

Daphne Mashile-Nkosi shook the mining world by grabbing a slice of the manganese market. Diversified industrials: Johann Rupert runs luxury group Richemont, and his family controls Remgro.

Richard Branson has invested in SA with Virgin Active and Virgin Mobile.

Unlisted BEE Groups: Kagiso Tiso Holdings has R14-billion in assets. Another unlisted group is Cyril Ramaphosa’s Shanduka.