Tokyo Sexwale Mining Magnate : Meet The Billionaire Diamond Magnate Who Went To Jail With Nelson Mandela

Tokyo Sexwale

Born: March 5, 1953, Orlando West, Johannesburg
Company: Mvelaphanda Holdings
Position: Chairman, CEO
Industry: Mining
Country: South Africa

Tokyo SexwaleIn 1977 Tokyo Mosima Gabriel Sexwale along with Nelson Mandela was sent to Robben Island to serve a life sentence. When Mr. Mandela became president he named him premier of the country's largest Gauteng province. The province that contributes 45% of SA's gross domestic product.

Sexwale quit politics to start Mvelaphanda in 1999. Mvelaphanda Resources (Mvela) is a broadly-based company with significant stakes in South African and Russian precious metal and mineral assets including Gold Fields, Northam Platinum and Trans Hex. Mvelaphanda Resources revenue in 2003 was US$224 million.

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Sexwale is also chairman of Mvelaphanda Holdings (Pty) Limited and Mvelaphanda Group Limited, Northam Platinum Limited, Trans Hex Group Limited; director of ABSA Group Limited and Gold Fields Limited. Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Business Trust; Honorary Consul General of Finland. Previously premier of Gauteng Province (1994 to 1998). Joined the corporate sector in 1998 and established Mvelaphanda Holdings (Pty) Limited, a diversified investment company, in 1999.

Tokyo Sexwale is married to Judy Moon; they have two children, Gabrielle and Chris. In 2005, he hosted the South African version of the reality game show The Apprentice.
Sexwale has received many honors and awards, including the Legion d'honneur from France, an honorary doctorate in technology from the University of Nottingham, an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from De Montfort University UK, the Order of the Freedom of Havana (Cuba), the Cross of Valour (Ruby Class) from South Africa, and the Reach and Teach Leadership Award, from the United States. He is also chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology.Sexwale is also an honorary colonel in the South African Air Force and chair of the Council for the Support of National Defence, whose aim is to encourage part-time military service as well as building support in society for those who wish to serve in the military as volunteers.

In 2004, he was voted 43rd in the list of "Top 100 Great South Africans".Sexwale holds positions in many international organizations, such as President of the South African/Russian Business, Technological and Cultural Association and Vice President of the South African/Japanese Business Forum. He is also an Honorary Consul General of Finland in South Africa.


TOKYO SEXWALE: Meet The Billionaire Diamond Magnate Who Went To Jail With Nelson Mandela

Until today, billionaire South African Tokyo Sexwale (prounced "seh-wa-le," unfortunately) was the country's housing minister.

But Jacob Zuma's leadership shake-up saw Sexwale — the major anti-apartheid crusader and diamond mogul considered to be a political challenger to the president — removed from the cabinet.

Sexwale has a crazy life story to go with that name (the "Tokyo" moniker derives from his childhood love of karate). 

In the late 1970s, he was charged with terrorism and conspiracy and sent to Robben Island where he met fellow political prisoner Nelson Mandela, who had been sent there 12 years prior.

Sexwale was released in 1990, and like something out a movie, he ended up marrying Judy van Vuuren, the paralegal that represented him while he was in prison.

When he came to power in 1994, Mandela named Sexwale premier of Gauteng province, the region home to both Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Sexwale would eventually leave politics for business, becoming a major oil and diamond mining magnate, though his name was floated as a possible successor to Mandela. That honor would go to Thabo Mbeki. In 2007, Sexwale reportedly planned to challenge Mbeki, but never did.

Things would also turn sour for Sexwale's marriage, scandalizing South Africa with a bitter divorce in February. It got ugly. Sexwale accused his wife of emailing out illegal hardcore pornography while she accused him of shielding his finances.

Those finances are impressive. Sexwale made an absolute fortune from his company, which was once lauded by fellow diamond tycoon Harry Oppenheimer. In 2009, Sexwale declared his wealth to be approximately $2 billion rand (nearly $200 million).

The divorce also helped shine some light on all of Sexwale's toys too: the requisite yacht, vineyards, Learjet, and even a $70 million island.

In 2009, Zuma appointed Sexwale as Minister of Human Settlements, but it was no secret that Sexwale still had presidential aspirations.

Now out of power, those ambitions will have to wait. At least this is his new girlfriend.

This Is Tokyo Sexwale’s New Babe, As One Of SA’s Biggest Ever Divorce Settlements Looms 

Tokyo lives it up on R2m a month, says 'skint' Judy

Explosive affidavits filed in the High Court in Johannesburg say that Tokyo Sexwale's living expenses exceed R2-million a month.

The estranged wife of the former presidential hopeful and business tycoon, Judy Sexwale, has partly lifted the veil of secrecy that surrounded his wealth after he became minister of human settlements. He left the government last year.

"I do not live a life of extravagant luxury but the family is comfortable ... [Judy] deluded herself into believing that I was a billionaire," says Sexwale in court papers, responding to a fresh legal bid by Judy Sexwale to extract higher maintenance payments from him, pending their divorce.

Judy Sexwale is seeking a temporary order, known as rule 43 of the high court, for maintenance of R150000 a month and a contribution towards the substantial legal costs she has incurred since their acrimonious separation.

Joining government

When Sexwale was a cabinet minister, he earned about R2-million a year. This is the amount (according to bank statements between March 2013 and February 2014) that he now spends monthly. The statements were obtained by Judy Sexwale's legal team.

The statements also show that his average "monthly personal expenses" are R1.9-million, excluding payments of about R994000 by one of the family trusts to aviation companies.

When Sexwale became a cabinet minister in 2009, he was worth R1.9-billion in listed equities. He then cut ties with the corporate world and placed his business interests in "blind trusts".

Less than two years after Judy Sexwale moved out of their R60-million mansion in Sandhurst, Johannesburg, she says in her affidavit that she does not know "where to turn". Her finances are under tremendous strain because of mounting legal bills.

She says she once led a life of "great extravagance" with overseas holidays, private jets, helicopter day trips, private bankers and lavish gifts including - for several years - a R1-million cheque at Christmas.

"He was proud when our bankers told him I was nothing like the wives of our other billionaire clients in my spending patterns ... I was never subject to any limit," she says.

Sexwale has continued to enjoy the same standard of living, funded by their trusts, "while my standard of living has changed dramatically", she says.

She intends to hire forensic and specialist investigators to peel back layers that she believes hide vast wealth behind a complex corporate web of companies and trusts.

The Sexwales were married in community of property.

Complex estate

In his court filings, Sexwale says his estate is "not complex".

"[She] has conflated the issues which relate to me with the issues that relate to the trusts," he says.

"I deny that I have not been open and transparent ... I have no hidden assets."

Judy Sexwale has been paid R50000 a month in maintenance and an additional R55000 by one of the Sexwale family trusts to rent a home.

She and their two adult children have moved four times in the past year, she says, because the Sexwale trustees refuse to buy her a house in Cape Town. According to a Constitutional Court ruling, details of divorce proceedings may be published - except for the names of the affected parties.

Sexwale says in his affidavit that he "wished" their divorce to be "amicable, dignified, private". However, his attorney, Billy Gundelfinger, confirmed to a speculative media in February last year that Sexwale was his client and was getting divorced.

Wim Trengove SC has been briefed by Gundelfinger to act for Sexwale. Judy Sexwale has briefed senior counsel Chris Loxton.

Sexwale describes his wife's rule 43 application as "libellous, irrelevant fabrications; speculative, unsavoury, vexatious and untrue".

Judy Sexwale claims in her filing papers in the divorce that she was physically and emotionally abused by her husband.

Sexwale denies this, saying in his affidavit, filed in May: "She was not the woman that I married and loved for many years ... she was confrontational and quarrelsome ... with staff whom she racially abused."

Living the high life

Sexwale says he terminated his wife's use of credit cards "as she was spending, at times, in excess of R25000 per day".

Judy Sexwale says they lived a "lifestyle of great extravagance", but her estranged husband says that "after leaving politics and for a few years thereafter, we lived at a high standard".

In January this year, New World Wealth consulting named Sexwale the third-richest man in South Africa, with a net worth of $200-million (about R2.2-billion). In his replying affidavit, Sexwale takes issue with the amount he was said to have earned from Mvelaphanda Resources Limited when the group was unbundled.

"I deny that I told [Judy] or the children that I would acquire in excess of R30-billion for the sale of shares consequent upon the unbundling of the Mvela Group. I informed [Judy] that I would receive R30-million from Mvelaphanda Resources consequent upon the exercise of certain share options when Mvela group was unbundled."

Sexwale says that the TJS Trust owned shares in Mvelaphanda but that he resigned in 2009. He said he made only R1.5-million last year and R1.2-million in 2012. Yet his monthly expenditure shows various companies, housed in trusts, paying money into his personal bank account.

Not mine

He claims throughout his affidavit that he has no insight into the affairs of his trusts - either the TJS Family Trust (Tokyo Judy Sexwale), the TJS Houghton Trust or a third family trust.

Sexwale says he was not a trustee of his own trusts either and that "neither trust is my alter ego". In Sexwale's 60-page affidavit, he denies ownership of private jets, a Mozambican island, farms and luxury homes.

"I deny that [she] was given a Lear Jet 45 and a Gulfstream III Jet as gifts ... the planes were not hers, but those of companies, the shares of which are held in the trust," says Sexwale.

"I don't own any immovable properties."

Sexwale says the family trusts do not own the properties either. "The Houghton trust doesn't own the properties ... these properties are owned by various entities, the shares of which are owned by the Houghton trust."

Judy Sexwale, in her affidavit, says there is abundant evidence that he was "intimately" involved in every purchase.

Sexwale denies that he owns:
A R60-million Sandhurst house;
An R8-million Houghton home;
The R30-million Oude Kelder wine farm in Fransch-hoek;
A La Mer, Clifton, home with a value of R100-million, according to one of Sexwale's trustees;
The Dinokeng luxury game lodge; and
The Indian ocean island luxury resort Quilálea.

Sexwale denies that he ever bought the wine farm.

"I deny that I purchased Oude Kelder. Oude Kelder was purchased by a company of which I'm neither a shareholder nor a director," he says in the affidavit.
Newspaper reporters and the Top Billing television programme interviewed the Sexwales at Oude Kelder in 2004.

"I had been looking for two years for an appropriate farm," Sexwale said in the interview. "By 'appropriate' I mean boutique. I didn't want to get into major wine farming - that is a full-on business. It had to be a farm with its own label.
"I wanted to feel the mountains and not to hear cars. At night, the sky had to be as black as it gets."

The day Top Billing visited the Sexwale home, it was full of friends, food and wine.
"The area's first black farmer loves to entertain," City Press reported at the time.

In his filings, Sexwale says he does not know why he has been, for many years, on various rich lists.
"I take no responsibility for sensational news reports."

In April, Judy Sexwale filed a notice in terms of rule 43 in the High Court in Johannesburg asking for more maintenance and a substantial contribution to her legal costs in divorcing Sexwale after a 21-year-long marriage. Sexwale filed his replying affidavit in May and Judy Sexwale filed another supplementary affidavit in July.

The Sunday Times obtained copies of these signed documents, which are in the public domain.The Sunday Times has learnt that Judy Sexwale has since withdrawn her application and intends to bring a new one.

jurgensa@sundaytimes.co.za
joubertp@sundaytimes.co.za

Inside Tokyo and Judy Sexwale's finances. Get more details here.

 Billionaire Tokyo Sexwale is in the process of splurging on a Mozambican island resort.

Sexwale’s office declined to comment on his purchase of the 35ha Quilálea Island Resort, nestled in a “forgotten corner” of Mozambique’s Quirimbas Archipelago, a group of coral islands in northern Mozambique.

Hoteliers John and Marjolaine Hewlett, who founded the Quilálea Island Resort in November 2002, could not be reached for comment on the deal either.

Last year Sexwale, the 55-year old chairman of investment and mining group Mvelaphanda, forked out a reported R56-million for a mansion in Sandhurst, northern Johannesburg.

According to websites advertising exclusive getaways on the island, the secluded resort boasts nine private villas, and is billed as a “a genuine haven of luxury and beauty”.

The villas, made of stone and makuti thatch, have verandas with panoramic views of the Indian Ocean. Each air-conditioned villa features indigenous teak and mahogany furniture.

According to an online reservation system, daily rates for the villas range from $540 to $11,780 (R4,320 to R94,240).

Although the rates include meals, house wines, local beers, bottled water and snorkelling equipment, guests are charged extra for activities ranging from 20-minute helicopter rides (R1,120 per person) to big game deep-sea fishing trips (R5,280 for eight hours).

According to Private Islands Inc, a Canadian estate agency that sells islands around the world, foreigners cannot own freehold land in Mozambique.

“The government grants land-use concessions for up to 50 years with options to renew,” it says.

Quilálea is remote and doesn’t even have a landing strip. Visitors need to charter an aircraft to the neighbouring island of Quirimba, and then take a 15-minute boat trip to Quilálea.

In July, the resort’s management issued a statement disputing claims that the hotel had been bought by a “well known international group”.

But now it appears that Sexwale made the Hewletts — owners of the Arquipelagos das Quirimbas, the company that the hotel is registered under — an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Although reportedly far wealthier, the Sunday Times annual Rich List — which ranked Sexwale as the country’s 20th richest individual — shows the billionaire’s shareholding in several companies is worth R1.3-billion.

Pam Golding Properties’ Tara Whiting said Mozambique was attracting “the well-heeled at the upper end of the economic scale”.

“Recently we’ve been seeing heightened interest in Mozambique... with a prime, beachfront leisure home increasingly becoming a sought-after acquisition among the moneyed set.”

Pambele island, which is close to Quilálea, is on the market for £2.3-million (R34-million).

Pambele is on Pam Golding Properties’ books and is located on the northern tip of the San Sebastion Peninsula in northern Mozambique.

The 8426m² property boasts four thatched villas and a central building with a bar and dining room.

“The owner of Pambele also acquires co-ownership of a 30,000ha sanctuary (the privately owned Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary) which is ranked among the top biodiversity hot spots in Africa,” said Whiting.

Pam Golding Hospitality managing director Joop Demes said: “There is no doubt that Mozambique is rapidly closing the gap with the other famous Indian Ocean destinations such as the Seychelles, the Maldives and Mauritius.” — (Simpiwe Piliso, www.thetimes.co.za)

Tokyo Sexwale Cape Town Villa

South African Business Mogul and diamond magnate speaks with young entrepreneurs about what keeps him going in business . Reports A.Y.E president Summy Francis.
Our meeting was booked at his Foundation house office in Melrose Arch ,  a building with great history of the beginnings of Mr. sexwale’s business empire . We were welcomed into the boardroom, the beautiful antics, artistic furniture and the whole room expresses the look that a lot of decisions were made in  there.
Mr Sexwale walks in with his majestic stride and immediately asks that I chair the meeting .I smile with amazement as I sit as the chair ,  I must say ,it immediately brought a huge sense of power . I asked him , Mr. Sexwale ,they always said to us young entrepreneurs that  you know from the beginning  if you are going to become successful, some believe it ,some don’t. One of the most inspiring chapters of your life story is that you came from the township and went back to the township creating jobs and housing people. Tell us, is it true you always knew this would happen from the onset of your early life,  or it was just destiny that carried you through?
With a firm voice he said, Destiny is an unknown element and you can only speak on destiny when you have passed. Nobody can design or prescribe their destiny, when the four of us leave this room, you can decide to go to lunch or drive back and something else can happen, sometimes “plans and aspirations may coincide with your dreams and  sometimes there paths may never meet”
MR Sexwale further explained that the secret to success is hard work and sure does pay; everybody knows this. I have not told you anything that you don’t already know about. As much as success is hard work, its also hard leisure, take a break and a hard break to recuperate your brain ,you need it for the next level. Rest your body; so you can get back to working hard. Nothing comes easy but the interesting thing is hard work pays off. It pays off because the harder you work you don’t have to work hard for the rest of your life but the genesis of your success is hard work. I am a retired businessman I retired when I was 55 but I wish I could’ve retired earlier. If I could have worked harder I could’ve certainly retired at 30. 
He also explained at length about the three key things we humans do , which is to produce , reproduce and rest and he enlightened us on how this affects our existence.
As we talked, I told him of how a lot of young entrepreneurs engaged in so many businesses at the same time and how we fail to build because we are doing so much all at once.  And we want to hear his take on this as he as has engaged in business, politics and government. He saw nothing wrong with it, Mr Sexwale immediately shared from his experience and he stated “I would not advice young and new entrepreneurs  to focus before they see the full menu, the world of success starts with options and no leader takes a decision without looking at all the options available.” He then said that after you have decided from your options, then you must have the courage to go for it, never allow courage to desert you. In all my life I pray for one thing and that is that the god of courage never leaves me . The success of life is one thing but then you must have the tenacity, capacity to do things, the brain, the intellect, new technology. You can have them all but courage is one thing that will keep you moving in life. Every entrepreneur should know this because as an entrepreneur you want to be innovative, cover new distances, new miles. When the tide is against you all you need is courage.
We talked for hours ,  and I couldn’t ask other questions and advice for young entrepreneurs as I would always ask every African giant I have met , I was caught up in just listening to every inspiring  story of his life’s experience . I must say  with experience comes Wisdom.We awarded him an honorary achievement award, as his impact is not just felt in South Africa, but far and beyond in Africa. Tokyo has built homes, he has built businesses but above all he has built outstanding entrepreneurs. Africa honors him for that and our personal respect and affection goes to him as a role model to us all.