Precious Moloi-Motsepe
Precious Moloi-Motsepe (born 2 August 1962)[1] is a South African philanthropist and fashion entrepreneur. One of the richest women in South Africa,[2] she started her career as a medical practitioner, specializing in children and women's health. In September 2019 she was elected Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, succeeding Graça Machel, and beginning her ten-year term on 1 January.[3]
Precious Moloi-Motsepe
3
Wits University (MBBCh; 1987)
Businesswoman, philanthropist and medical doctor
Founder of the African Fashion International
In 2007, she established African Fashion International,[4] an events, fashion and lifestyle company to promote pan-African designers to international audiences, and endorse the African fashion industry as a pathway to economic development for young people and women. In 2013, she joined the Giving Pledge with her husband, committing to give half of their family wealth to charitable causes.[5] In the same year she was on the inaugural cover of Forbes Women Africa[6] and has since been listed as of the 50 most powerful women on the continent by Forbes Magazine Africa.[7]
She is a regular delegate to the World Economic Forum held in Davos,[8] as well as a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Women's Leadership Board.[9] She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Milken Institute's Center for Strategic Philanthropy[10] and the Harvard University Global Advisory Council.[11]
Early life and education[edit]
Born in Soweto, one of five siblings, her father was a teacher and her mother a nurse[12] She attended Wits University where she graduated with an MBBCh degree in 1987[13] and worked in the United States at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond from 1991 to 1992.[14] Upon her return to South Africa, she pursued a diploma in child health from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a diploma in women's health from Stellenbosch University.[15]
In 1989, she married Patrice Motsepe, a lawyer who was also brought up in Soweto. Forbes Magazine Africa estimated her family's wealth at US$3 billion and noted that they were South Africa's wealthiest black couple.[16] She is of Sotho descent.