The Stellenbosch Mafia

Inside the Billionaire's Club

By: Pieter du Toit

Narrated by: Dylan Oosthuizen

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

About 50km outside of Cape Town lies the beautiful town of Stellenbosch, nestled against vineyards and blue mountains that stretch to the sky. Here reside some of South Africa’s wealthiest individuals: all male, all Afrikaans - and all stinking rich. Johann Rupert, Jannie Mouton, Markus Jooste and Christo Weise, to name a few.

Julius Malema refers to them scathingly as ‘The Stellenbosch Mafia’, the very worst example of white monopoly capital. But who really are these mega-wealthy individuals, and what influence do they exert not only on Stellenbosch but more broadly on South African society?

Author Pieter du Toit begins by exploring the roots of Stellenbosch, one of the wealthiest towns in South Africa and arguably the cradle of Afrikanerdom. This is the birthplace of apartheid leaders, intellectuals, newspaper empires and more. He then closely examines this ‘club’ of billionaires. Who are they and, crucially, how are they connected? What network of boardroom membership, alliances and family connections exist? Who are the ‘old guard’ and who are the ‘inkommers’, and what about the youngsters desperate to make their mark? He looks at the collapse of Steinhoff: what went wrong, and whether there are other companies at risk of a similar fate. He examines the control these men have over cultural life, including pulling the strings in South Africa rugby.

©2019 Pieter du Toit (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

What a pity

An interesting book, read in a most peculiar sing song manner with astounding mispronunciations of the main protagonists names which changed from chapter to chapter.. surely a production like this would ensure at least the names of the subjects of the book would be pronounced properly!

Good story - Shocking performance.

Story was very interesting and well researched but the narration / performance was cringe worthy. The pronunciation of some of the simplest English was weak and the more complicated names and places made my ears bleed.

Insightful and inspiring

This book puts a lot of unknowns about the history of the billionaires of Stellenbosch into
perspective. It is both thought provoking and inspiring and provides an interesting explanation into the wealth generated by what is now deemed to be in the hands of white capitalistic monopolies.

Worthy Read

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Delved into the mysterious word of the Stellenbosch elite made up of largely old Afrikaans males. Fascinating culture with fascinating stories about how and with whom they built their businesses with. Worthy read for any South African entrepreneur.

Maybe just not my cup of tea

An exposé, mixed with a bit of gossip. If I had lived in SA, I believe I’d be much more interested. Thank you.

Informative and inspiring

It's interesting
And inspiring to see what hard work can make one archive on top of the naysayers and the blacks sheeps
1

Enjoyable and Easy listen

nice peer into the stellies troop and how relationships matter more than anything else. soort soek soort.

Joost... E

Markus Jooste has an e at the end... The narrator talks about Joost... As the rugby player's name.

Really Interesting

What alot I didn't know about my own country. I would recommend for any business owner.

Good content poor narration

Alot of this content resembles the documentary on Marcus Jooste and the title of the book is way off and just misleading. Insightful, rich and well-written content on some of S-A's mega wealthy and powerful business men from Stellenbosch that unfortunately was lost by the narrator who for me, did not do the text and the juicinesst in-between the lines justice. I found myself rewinding alot to get what was said.
Most of the book centers around around Rupert and Jooste with dabblings into other Characters.
Not cumbersome nor laborious but lacking energy and rhythm.