The number of South Africans with more than $30 million (R326m) in net assets climbed 14 percent in the past six years following equity and commodity price gains and increasing black ownership of the economy, according to the consultancy New World Wealth.
Johannesburg accounted for 48 percent of the 600 ultra-high-net-worth individuals, with more than half the city’s super-rich living in the suburbs that comprise Sandton, it said in a report yesterday.
Another 18 percent live in Cape Town and 6 percent in Durban.
Andrew Amoils at New World Wealth said: “High-net-worth individual growth was influenced by a rise in new business formation, particularly in the black economic empowerment arena, solid local stock exchange returns and rising commodity prices.”
The government has encouraged companies to increase black ownership to make up for the discrimination suffered during apartheid. – Bloomberg