South African Billionaire Patrice Motsepe Donates Half His Fortune To Charity

South African billionaire, Patrice Motsepe (PHOTO CREDIT: Forbes.com)

Joining Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe announced that he will be donating half of his company’s assets to combat South Africa’s poverty, advancing women’s causes, and reforming education, health and unemployment, report Forbes.com.

“[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.”

With a Forbes’ estimated net worth of $2.65 billion, Motsepe is South Africa’s richest Black man. His announcement Wednesday was attended by King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulu nation, South Africa’s Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Rabbi Warren Goldstein, among others.

Read more from Forbe’s below:

Patrice Motsepe, 51, is South Africa’s first black billionaire. Born in the sprawling black township of Soweto and then trained as a lawyer, he became the first black partner at Bowman Gilfillan, a prestigious commercial law firm in Johannesburg. He subsequently started a contracting business doing mine scut work and went on to buy low-producing gold mine shafts in 1994, turning them around using a lean management style. His publicly-traded company, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has interests in platinum, nickel, chrome, iron, manganese, coal, copper and gold. He also owns a stake in Sanlam, a publicly traded financial services company outside Cape Town, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.

Motsepe is the first African to join the Giving Pledge, a campaign spearheaded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage the wealthiest people in the world to make a commitment to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Motsepe said that his decision to donate a fortune has been a long time in the making:

“I decided quite some time ago to give at least half the funds generated by our family assets to uplift poor and other disadvantaged and marginalised South Africans, but was also duty-bound and committed to ensuring that it would be done in a way that protects the interests and retains the confidence of our shareholders and investors,” Motsepe said in his pledge.

Bill Gate’s applauded Motsepe’s altruism, but recognition is not on the billionaire’s agenda. Motsepe said that he simply wanted those in difficult circumstances to know “we are not going to allow you to suffer alone.”