No fewer than 47 of the wealthiest 225 South Africans, measured by the value of listed shares they hold, are Jewish. This is according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2015 published last weekend and represents at least 21 per cent of the list. This has to be seen in the context that SA Jewry represents just 0,014 per cent of the total SA population. The annual survey understates the wealth and income of SA Jewry - READ WHY...
No fewer than 47 of the wealthiest 225 South Africans, measured by the value of listed shares they hold, are Jewish. This is according to the Sunday Times “Rich List” 2015 published last weekend. Jews represent at least 21 per cent of the list.
This is still a most sizeable representation, seeing that SA Jewry represents just 0,14 per cent of the total South African population. Also, many of South Africa’s wealthiest Jews control privately owned companies or earn income from overseas holdings or are privately invested in property.
Old-established family wealth such as that of the likes of the Samsons, Lubners, Kaplans, and so many more are not reflected in these surveys. Neither is Donny Gordon or his daughter, Wendy Appelbaum, who is said by Forbes to be the wealthiest woman and biggest female philanthropist in Africa. His son, Graeme, does appear this year however.
Among the notable information in the Sunday Times List is that second place goes to Glencore’s Ivan Glasenberg with a net worth of R24.9 billion, down from R61.4 billion last year.
RIGHT: Humble Discovery founder and CEO Adrian Gore has seen his share-value quadruple over the past four years
The highest ranked Jewish entity is the Ackerman Family Trust, at number 11, with R7.3 billion (in 2013 it was also at 11 with R4.8 billion), and Adrian Gore is in 12th place with R7.2 billion.
Gore, the founder and CEO of Discovery, who also came in at 12th place in 2013, has seen his shares’ value climb from R2,1 billion in 2011 to R2,7 billion in 2012 and R4,2 billion in 2013 and then the large jump in 2015.
Among the Sunday Times List of Top Earners, Jews tend to feature far less, pointing to the fact that they do not pull the largest salaries.
LEFT: Bidvest's Brian Joffe was the top Jewish earner at a listed company on the 2015 Sunday Times Rich List
Bidvest’s Brian Joffe was the highest-earning member of the Jewish community – ranked at number 26 having earned R13.77 million in 2015. Joffe’s 0.32 per cent holding of Bidvest shares, however, puts him at 110 on the wealthiest list with a value of R366 million.
Topping the Sunday Times Rich List this year is businessman Christo Wiese, whose investment holdings wealth has ballooned by almost 200 per cent over the past year to R104,8-billion.
PDF: 2015's WEALTHIEST & TOP EARNERS
READ 2013 RICHLIST STORY ON THIS WEBSITE