[imagesource: Reuters / Siphiwe Sibeko]

Forbes’ annual Billionaires List for 2022 has been tracking the wealth of five of our local billionaires.

Two of them have done rather well, cracking a spot in the ranking of the richest 250 people in the world.

Despite the global economy suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a few lucky billionaires have added substantially to their wealth.

In South Africa, most of the super-wealthy individuals have seen their fortunes grow over the last 12 months, reported BusinessTech.

At the top of South Africa’s billionaire ranking is luxury goods entrepreneur Johann Rupert, who has increased his wealth by 25% from $7,1 billion in 2021.

That puts him at a solid $8,9 billion (roughly R130 billion) this year.

Rupert took the South African crown from mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer, who isn’t all that far behind with a fortune of $8,7 billion.

In Forbes’ ranking of the 250 richest people in the world, Rupert is at 230 and Oppenheimer at 241.

Five South Africans feature in the top 2 000, with the table below showing their wealth (in US dollar billions) in 2021 and 2022, and the percentage difference between those two years:

Image: BusinessTech

Globally, Forbes reckons there are 2 668 billionaires in total this year, which is actually 87 people fewer than last year.

It was a pretty good year for Elon Musk, though. If you want to compute the extent of his wealth, give this a read.

[source:businesstech]