SA Billionaires Index Methodology
The Rateweb South African Billionaires Index ranks South Africa's wealthiest individuals by estimated net worth. Every figure is an estimate. We do not claim figures are exact, and we do not verify them with the individuals listed.
How we estimate net worth
Each person's wealth is built up from individual holdings, then totalled in rand. Listed holdings are revalued automatically every day from current JSE share prices — so when the market moves, the index moves with it.
- Public (JSE) shareholdings — a disclosed stake is recorded as a fixed number of shares and valued at the current JSE price (value = shares × price). This portion updates automatically.
- Private companies & other assets — a disclosed estimate based on publicly available revenue/profit, industry multiples, known transactions and credible reporting.
- Debt & liabilities — deducted where publicly available.
Where our data comes from
We use public records only: JSE share prices and listed-company disclosures, SENS announcements, company annual reports, and ownership/directorship information disclosed via CIPC. We do not scrape or copy Bloomberg, Forbes or any other index — share counts and stakes come from public disclosures and are then revalued from live JSE prices, the same bottom-up approach a serious index uses.
Confidence ratings
Each profile carries a confidence rating — high (mostly public, market-linked wealth), medium (a mix of public and estimated private assets), or low (largely private and harder to verify).
Corrections
We welcome corrections supported by public evidence. Contact us to request a review.
