Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Sixty years building the Rembrandt group out of a garage in Stellenbosch, and a fortune that outlasted him — alongside a serious record in conservation.
Anton Rupert abandoned a doctorate in chemistry and started a small business in a garage in Stellenbosch with ten pounds of capital, first in dry cleaning and then in tobacco.
From that came the Rembrandt Group, which bought its way into the international cigarette trade, took over Rothmans, and then diversified into luxury goods; the holding company Richemont, spun out in 1988, owns Cartier, Montblanc, Dunhill and Van Cleef & Arpels and is among the largest luxury groups in the world. He was for decades the outstanding Afrikaner businessman of his generation.
He argued consistently for what he called partnership — that a country could not prosper while excluding most of its people from its economy — put money into black-owned small business through the Small Business Development Corporation, and told Hendrik Verwoerd to his face that the policy would ruin the country. He also founded the Southern African Nature Foundation, chaired the World Wide Fund for Nature internationally, and created the Peace Parks Foundation, which has established cross-border conservation areas across southern Africa.
From that came the Rembrandt Group, which bought its way into the international cigarette trade, took over Rothmans, and then diversified into luxury goods; the holding company Richemont, spun out in 1988, owns Cartier, Montblanc, Dunhill and Van Cleef & Arpels and is among the largest luxury groups in the world. He was for decades the outstanding Afrikaner businessman of his generation.
He argued consistently for what he called partnership — that a country could not prosper while excluding most of its people from its economy — put money into black-owned small business through the Small Business Development Corporation, and told Hendrik Verwoerd to his face that the policy would ruin the country. He also founded the Southern African Nature Foundation, chaired the World Wide Fund for Nature internationally, and created the Peace Parks Foundation, which has established cross-border conservation areas across southern Africa.
- Wikipedia — Anton Rupert
- The Telegraph — Anton Rupert obituary
- Peace Parks Foundation — Our founders
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