Durban - Durban is producing millionaires faster than any other city in South Africa. And it is rapidly becoming the new City of Gold, according to a report released by a global finance research firm.
The city at present has 2 700 high net-worth individuals with net assets worth more than R11 million or $1m, with the number expected to grow by 35 percent over the next decade.
While Joburg and Cape Town still have more dollar millionaires than Durban with 23 400 and 9 000 respectively, Durban is catching up, having demonstrated a higher percentage growth in the number of high rollers produced since 2007
The revelations have been made by finance research company New World Wealth in their 2014 Africa Wealth Report.
The report is produced by a team of economists and analysts using data received from hundreds of financial institutions, revenue collection agencies and surveys conducted across top corporations in Africa.
Since 2007, Durban has also produced more individuals with net assets of $30m (R336m) growing by 43 percent, compared with Joburg’s 24 percent. According to the report there are 33 people in Durban who fall in the $30m category, known as ultra high net-worth individuals.
Wealth analyst Andrew Amoils said wealth growth in South Africa was strong but the rising number of millionaires in Durban was particularly impressive.
“The research is certainly showing that there is definitely growth in Durban, the highest percentage in South Africa and certain Durban areas such as Umhlanga and Zimbali have experienced massive top-end wealth growth over the past five to 10 years,” Amoils said.
The Africa Report also highlighted Umhlanga, Zimbali, Umdloti, Mount Edgecombe, Morningside and Durban North as the wealthiest areas in Durban.
The report follows the recently released South African Revenue Service statistics for this year which revealed the following:
* Nationally there are 71 374 taxpayers earning between R1m and R2m a year (42 572 in 2010)
* There are 18 320 individuals in the 2m to 5m per annum category (11 378 in 2010)
* There are 3 337 earning more than R5m (1 881 in 2010)
* KZN residents make up around 13.7 percent of the country’s top earners.
According to the national treasury, KZN is the second largest GDP contributor to the economy, generating an estimated R322bn, second only to Gauteng.
“Durban is not the small-time place people think it is any more. It’s a town that has some serious players and we’re seeing more and more wealthy people coming out of the city and the province,” said a private banker from a leading bank.
“We’ve known for a long time that this was going to happen.”
Chief executive of Albaraka Bank, Shabir Chohan, said there was a trend in which an increasing number of young millionaires were emerging in Durban.
“There’s a new generation of business people in Durban who are proving to be successful at taking their business to the next level. They are using the latest business practices and hiring professionals. These are young businessmen who are really growing,” he said.
“This shows that there are opportunities in KZN and things are beginning to pick up in the province tremendously,” he added.
Chohan said he was also seeing a reverse trend of high-level executives moving from Joburg, considered the business hub of the country, to take up positions in Durban.
The MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mike Mabuyakhulu, said Durban was quickly becoming a serious economic hub.
“For some time we’ve been indicating to the people of KwaZulu-Natal and the country that this province is a place where you can do business and be successful. Quite a number of millionaires are emerging in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
“We are seeing this growth because we handle more than 80 percent of South Africa’s imports and exports, they are coming through Durban and Richards Bay. This indicates that if you want to do business and succeed you should be located in this province.
”We are the only province to pass an investment protocol which clearly outlines a roadmap for investors and simplifies investment in this province,” Mabuyakhulu said.
“We are reducing the cost of doing business… The investment in logistics has made it very profitable to do business here…”, he said.
KZN aimed to attract more big companies’ headquarters. “I can guarantee that in 20 years KZN will be the country’s leading economic base.”
This is the first in a series focusing on the rich of KwaZulu-Natal. This week Masood Boomgaard looks at the biggest business players
Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the richest of them all? The truth is, you just can’t say for sure who the richest people in KwaZulu-Natal are.
There’s no definitive list.
One measure of wealth is holdings in companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which is open to public scrutiny. But some people have other assets, like property and private companies, and this wealth doesn’t have to be disclosed to anyone except the taxman.
Compiling a KZN rich list is an exercise fraught with problems, not least because many wannabes exaggerate their wealth while the really rich avoid the limelight. Unless you see their balance sheet you can’t really tell how wealthy someone is.
So here is an inconclusive, flawed “guess list” of some of the richest people in KZN.
Last week the South African Revenue Service said there were 2 539 people in South Africa who paid tax on earnings of more than R5 million a year. In 2009 there were 321 fewer people in that income category, so the number of rich people is growing. The combined declared income of those 2 539 people was R22.7 billion.
Last week the New World Wealth survey said South Africa was home to 49 000 dollar millionaires (about R10m), a figure that had doubled in the past 10 years.
According to a Forbes article in April, South Africa’s richest men are:
Johann Rupert, whose fortune is largely derived from shares in luxury goods maker Richemont, is worth $7.6bn.
Nicky Oppenheimer, mining, is worth $6.7bn.
Christo Wiese, the retail tycoon synonymous with Shoprite, is worth $3.2bn.
Patrice Motsepe, mining magnate, is worth $2.7bn.
Forbes said Stephen Saad, the Durban-based business mogul who started Aspen Pharmacare, was worth $1.3bn, in the same league as media magnate Koos Bekker and investment guru Allan Gray, both worth at least $1.3bn.
The richest person to emerge from SA is 43-year-old Elon Musk, who grew up in Pretoria and left for Canada at the age of 17. According to Forbes Musk is worth $11bn. He made his fortune as one of the founders of PayPal and is famous for his SpaceX, Tesla Motors and SolarCity. Forbes said Musk was the 52nd most powerful person in the world.
A little down from the uber rich are the super rich.
Saad’s deputy and Aspen co-founder, Gus Attridge, is ranked as among Africa’s richest with R5bn.
Attridge and Saad started Aspen in 1997. It is the largest publicly traded drug manufacturer on the JSE. Forbes says the company has a market capitalisation of $11bn. Saad is the largest shareholder.
Other KZN business people who have been ranked previously by the Sunday Times, on the basis of publicly available information and calculated at a specific time, include:
Sipho Nkosi of Exxaro Resources, R1.6bn.
According to information available online, Nkosi has more than 20 years’ experience in the industrial and mining sectors. He was a founder of Eyesizwe Holdings and served as chief executive officer before its merger into Exxaro in 2006. He was appointed chief executive of Exxaro in September 2007. Nkosi is a director of a number of companies, including Sanlam Limited, and was president of the Chamber of Mines from 2007 to 2010.
Judy Dlamini, Aspen, R502m: A medical doctor by profession, Dlamini spent some 10 years in practice before attaining her MBA and making the move to business. After spending two years at HSBC she began to develop her entrepreneurial interests.
Dlamini is a shareholder and non-executive director of Imithi Investments (Pty) Limited, Aspen’s black economic empowerment shareholder. She is the managing director and executive chairwoman of Mbekani Health & Wellbeing (Pty) Limited, chairwoman of Masibulele Pharmaceuticals (Pty) Limited and other companies in the Mbekani group. Her other non-executive directorships include Anglo American plc. She is also a trustee of Mkhiwa Trust, a family trust focusing on rural development and education of previously disadvantaged individuals.
Alan Burke, ARB Electrical, R639m: According to an online profile Burke is the founder and chairman of ARB Holdings. He trained as an electrician, which proved to be the springboard for his involvement in the electrical wholesale industry. He founded ARB in 1980 in Richards Bay and has been the driving force behind its success. Burke is involved in formulating the strategic direction of the group.
Harish Mehta, Redefine and Spar, R289m: Mehta is the chairman of Clearwater, a strategic BEE shareholder in Redefine. He was formerly the managing director of the Universal Print Group (Pty) Limited and is a non-executive director of Avusa Limited and The Spar Group Limited.
Ivan Clark, Grindrod and Chemspec, R265m: Clark recently retired as chairman of the board of Grindrod. He also served as chief executive during a period in which the company was the highest listed company in the world. As chief executive, Clark guided the group from a loss of R66m in 1999 to Marine Money International’s top listed shipping company in the world for 2005 and 2006. Grindrod has offices in more than 38 countries.
Pierre Joubert, Crookes Bros, R208m: Crookes Brothers produces a range of agricultural products, including sugar cane, bananas, deciduous fruit, grain and sheep, on properties in South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Mozambique. The company has a 150-year history.
Gary Bell, Bell Equipment, R192m: Bell Equipment has been around since the 1940s and has grown into a manufacturing giant, supplying key equipment to agricultural, construction and forestry sectors worldwide. Bell is the chief executive.
William Battershill, BSI Steel, R187m: Battershill is the chief executive and chairman of BSI (Battershill Steel Industries) He founded Discount Steel in May 1985; and this became the flagship of what is now the BSi Group.
BSi Steel Limited is a JSE Alternative Exchange listed group of companies with strong ties to the greater Southern African market.
Hylton Rabinowitz, Taste Holdings, R110m: Rabinowitz is a non-executive director of NWJ at Taste Holdings Limited. He began his career in the jewellery industry 27 years ago when he opened Hylton’s Jewellers in 1983. The first NWJ store opened in Durban later and grew into a national entity
Craig Robertson, ARB, R89m: Robertson is managing director of ARB Electrical Wholesalers, southern Africa’s largest independent black-empowered electrical wholesaler, providing a wide range of internationally recognised products. ARB began in Richards Bay in 1980, and has grown drastically to become a nationwide, fully equipped electrical wholesaler.
In 2007, the ARB group listed on the Main Board of the JSE. This milestone initiative was deemed necessary to accelerate on-going organic growth and enable ARB to further expand across the continent, as well as continue its penetration of new, high-growth markets.
Alan Gooderson, Gooderson Leisure, R66m: Gooderson is the managing director and chairman of the Gooderson Leisure Corporation Limited. The Gooderson family link to the leisure industry dates back to 1957, when they bought the Lonsdale Hotel on the Durban beachfront.
By 1979 they owned 13 hotels countrywide. In 1979 Gooderson bought their interests in the company and consolidated its holdings.
The company then contained its interests within KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. It has since acquired game lodges and developed managed timeshare properties.
The KZN rich list would also include the following people whose fortunes cannot be publicly quantified:
Property mogul Jonathan Beare;
Willowton Oil patriarch Razak Moosa;
Dawood Mall, founder of Malls Tiles;
Yunus Akoo, the owner of Durban South Motors;
John Beekman, MD of the Beekman Group, a timeshare company;
Rajen Reddy, KZN Oils;
Shauwn Mpisane â€" Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport;
Vivian Reddy â€" Edison Power Group.

By Masood Boomgaard Comment on this story
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