Read on Twitter
In a statement put out in February this year, Patrice Motsepe defending himself against allegations of nepotism in IPP contracts at Eskom, said 'I come from old money, my hands are clean.' He wasn't lying. Question is how did his family get wealthy during Apartheid?
Thread..
Thread..
Patrice's father Chief Augustine Butana Chaane 'ABC' Motsepe was, as his title suggests the chief of Bakgatla Bammakau, who occupy the village of Mmakau 40kms North West of Pretoria near the town of Brits.
Being a tribal chief comes with responsibilities that include regulating any and all business activity that takes place on the land which the chief governs. Anyone who wants to start and operate a business has to get permission from the chief (or sub-chief, as the case may be)
When a Canadian mining company started operating on Bakgatla Bammaku land, Chief ABC Motsepe and the residents of Mmakau forced the mining house, Leuka Minerals, to pay royalties on the vanadium being mined on their land
Around the time the mine started operating on the Bakgatla ba Mmakau land, Chief ABC Motsepe quit his job as a teacher to open a grocery shop, a tavern & a restaurant. As the chief, he was in charge of giving permission to anyone else who wished to do the same.
Motsepe Snr's businesses flourished, and he was able to send all his children to exclusive private schools, even though this was prohibited by the Apartheid government...
You see, the Motsepes were designated as Black. However, according to Forbes, the family was able "pull strings" and get all seven Motsepe children admitted to an Afrikaans Catholic boarding school that was officially designated for coloured people only.
Patrice graduated from the University of Swaziland and then became one of the few black law graduates of the University of the Witwatersrand, which was designated whites-only. Again, the Motsepes had pulled more "strings" to make this happen
In 1988 Patrice joined Bowman Gilfillan, one of South Africa's largest corporate law firms, and 5 years later he became the firm's first Black partner. All of this at the height of Apartheid. Patrice leveraged this background to become the wealthiest Black man in South Africa
Not to be outdone,Patrice's older sister, Bridgette Radebe, wife of Jeff Radebe, heads a mining company, Mmakau. She scored success after buying a 25% stake in a shaft & underground construction company for R31M. She is today one of the the 25 wealthiest people in South Africa.
