8. Patrice Motsepe

•  Net Worth: $2.7 B                                                                      
•  Source of Wealth: Mining
•  Citizen: Johannesburg, South Africa
•  Age:51

South Africa's first and only black billionaire, mining magnate Patrice Motsepe earned himself another first in January when he announced that he would become the first African to sign Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge. His publicly traded mining conglomerate, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has interests in platinum, nickel, chrome, iron, manganese, coal, copper and gold. He also holds a stake in Sanlam, a publicly traded financial services company. Born in the sprawling black township of Soweto and then trained as a lawyer, he became the first black partner at the Bowman Gilfillan law firm in Johannesburg and then started a contracting business doing mine scut work. He bought low-producing gold mine shafts in 1994 and turned them profitable. Motsepe benefited from South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws, which mandate that companies be at least 26% black-owned in order to get a government mining license.