A popular quote by Winston Churchill says, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” This is true when you look at the life of Jannie Mouton. A determined man who moved from being fired to building one of Africa’s top business empire.
In this aricle, I’ll be delving into the biography of a self made South African billionaire – Jannie Mouton. Johannes Mouton also known as “Buddha Buffet” is the founder of the renowned PSG Group and the co-founder of Capitec Bank.
Background Of Jannie Mouton
Jannie was born in 1946 at Carnarvon, South Africa. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Stellenbosch University. In 1973, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
He was married to Dana Mouton who died in 2004. Currently, Jannie is married to Deidre Mouton and they have two sons and a daughter together.
Jannie lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa. One of his sons, Piet is the CEO of PSG Group. The eldest son, Jan manages the PSG Flexible Fund and is also a non-executive director in PSG.
PSG has interests in financial services, banking, private equity, agriculture and education.
Business Career Of Jannie Mouton
Jannie began his career at a young age of 22. Before starting his own business, he worked as an articled clerk at PwC. Thereafter, he co-founded a Stockbroking firm with his friends, Senekal and Kitshoff. Unfortunately, on 3rd August 1995, Jannie walked into the company as a managing partner but walked out of the company without a job. He got fired.
PSG Group
In November 1995, Mouton bought 51% of PAG (a listed recruitment firm) for R3.5million. Then, in 1997, PAG Ltd changed its name to PSG Group and the company sold PAG placement for R107m so as to focus on financial services. In 1998, R1.2billion was raised for PSG Noble Capital Ltd and the firm got listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
Afterwards, PSG Noble and PSG Investment Bank merged in 1999. Meanwhile, PSG Investment Bank is listed on the JSE as the seventh biggest bank in South Africa. In 2001, Capitec (a low cost bank) listed on JSE with PSG as a shareholder of reference. Thereafter, in 2003, PSG became the largest shareholder of Capitec with 30.7% stake.
In addition, PSG owns 20% of Arch Equity founded as BEE Investment Company. Following that, PSG aquires 15% interest in the JSE Ltd in 2005 and became the largest shareholder.
More Investment of PSG
In 2007, PSG joins Sanlam and Santam in establishing the new direct insurance, MiWay Insurance. Then in 2011, PSG listed its private education group, PSG Investments as Curro Holdings on JSE.
In summary, PSG’s investments include; Strategy and Philosophy, Capitec, PSG Konsult, Curro, Dipeo, Zeder Investments, PSG Capital, PSG Corporate and PSG Alpha.
Jannie Mouton Health
In 2018, Jannie Mouton issued a public statement stating he was diagnosed with an early form of dementia. He further mentioned that if his doctor recommends that he resigns, he would. Thereafter, he continued as the Chairman of PSG Group. However, after six months of the disclosure, he stepped down from the R54billion business he created.
And Then They Fired Me
This is a book by Jannie Mouton. This book talks about how Jannie started PSG Group after getting fired at age 48.
Awards And Recognitions
- Jannie is one of Forbes Africa’s 50 Richest, 2015
- Named among Forbes List of Billionaires, 2017
Jannie Mouton Quotes
“If you are unemployed, get yourself an office. Why? So that you can get up in the morning and have a purpose to shower.”
“Choose competent people, place them in key positions, and trust their judgement implicitly.”
“You can’t do everything yourself, you have to employ competent people. It is a trick to recognise good people.”
“You have to interact with people. You can’t sit behind a computer and think you can learn something about life. Interact with people, so that you can get a feeling for the right people.”
“Success requires innovation, hard work, dedication and a bit of luck.”
“Approach every challenge as an opportunity because a negative person has never really created anything.”