Billionaire Patrice Motsepe explains his retirement

Billionaire Patrice Motsepe has explained that he retired as the executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) to ensure compliance with the JSE’s Listings Requirements.

While Motsepe remains a director of the company, serving as its non-executive chairman, he ceased to be the chairman and an employee of ARM on 15 February 2026.

In ARM’s Annual Report for the 2026 financial year, released on 28 October, Motsepe explained that his retirement was to ensure compliance with the amended JSE Listings Requirements.

Previously, the JSE’s Listings Requirements required that a company appoint a CEO and a board chairperson, and that neither position could be held by the same person.

In addition, the chairperson had to be either an independent, non-executive director or a lead independent director appointed by the board.

Therefore, the old policy prevented one individual from holding both the CEO and chairman titles simultaneously.

However, it did not explicitly prohibit a company from having an executive chairman, provided it appointed a separate CEO. 

JSE-listed entities would interpret the chairman rule as an either/or condition, whereby the company would either appoint an independent, non-executive chair or any other type of chair.

This allowed influential founders and executives to retain operational control, remain full-time employees, and draw executive remuneration while serving on the board.

To close this “loophole”, the JSE revised this and many other sections of its Listings Requirements to include stricter wording.

Now, the new rules explicitly state that a company’s chair cannot be an executive director.

“The chair must not be an executive director, and must either be an independent non-executive director, or the applicant issuer must appoint a lead independent director in accordance with the King Code,” the rules now state.

This revised requirement took effect on 16 February for all existing listed issuers.

A day before, on 15 February, Motsepe announced that he would be retiring as executive chairman and employee of ARM.

The next day, on 16 February, he became the non-executive chairman of ARM’s board.

“To ensure compliance with the amended JSE Listings Requirements, I retired as executive chairman and employee of ARM on 15 February 2026,” Motsepe said in the 2026 Annual Report.

“I remain a director of the company, serving as non-executive chairman of the board from 16 February 2026.”

Motsepe and ARM

Motsepe is the founder of ARM through his establishment of Future Mining in 1994.

Future Mining grew rapidly into a successful contract mining company, and in 1997 Motsepe also formed ARMgold, which listed on the JSE in 2002.

In 2003, Motsepe led ARMgold into a merger with Avmin and Harmony Gold, which resulted in the company changing its name to African Rainbow Minerals.

Motsepe then became the founder and executive chairman of ARM and has led the company ever since.

Today, ARM is valued at R31.31 billion on the JSE, employs 20,000 employees and contractors, and makes headline earnings of R3.2 billion.

Motsepe’s wealth has also grown substantially since ARM’s founding. According to Forbes, his current net wealth is $3.4 billion, or R56.68 billion.

This makes Motsepe one of the richest men in South Africa and one of the country’s few dollar-billionaires.

In ARM’s 2026 Annual Report, Motsepe said the mining giant has a world-class management team and board.

“Their contribution is invaluable in helping ARM achieve its strategic objectives of delivering competitive returns for its shareholders and creating sustainable value for all stakeholders,” he said.

“I thank the management team and the board for their ongoing guidance, advice and commitment to advancing the best interests of the company.”

As chairman, Motsepe is supported by ARM CEO Phillip Tobias, who has been at the helm since May 2023. 

He served as ARM’s chief operating officer for two years prior, succeeding Mike Schmidt as CEO.

“On behalf of the board, we thank ARM’s CEO, Phillip Tobias, our outstanding management team and all our employees,” Motsepe said. 

“You are responsible for the success and profitability of our operations.”