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Jonathan Oppenheimer, son of Nicky Oppenheimer and a member of the family that turned Anglo American Plc and De Beers into global mining giants, is urging the South African government to step back and allow entrepreneurs to build companies without suffocating administrative hurdles.
Small business risk in a stalled economy
Small and medium-sized companies make up 91 percent of formal businesses in South Africa and contribute more than a third of gross domestic product. But the country has barely grown in the past decade, while running costs, licensing fees and the price of compliance have risen.
An index compiled by Absa Group and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows that more than half of the country’s small firms risk shutting down within a year if conditions do not improve or they do not receive assistance. In a recent interview, Oppenheimer said the state must be more conscious of time and cost pressures faced by small firms.
“The most powerful thing the government could do is get out of the way, particularly in the entrepreneurial space,” he said. “I’m not advocating an anarchic libertarian approach.
But government needs to understand that time, particularly for small businesses, is incredibly precious.”
The World Bank has issued similar warnings. The bank said excessive red tape hurts smaller companies the most, limits hiring, undermines business formation, and is now visible in the economy through “signs of paralysis.” South Africa’s GDP has expanded by less than 1% a year on average over the last ten years.
Oppenheimer’s own intervention during the Covid crisis
In 2020, his family donated R1 billion ($57.6 million) to establish the South African Future Trust to support small firms during the Covid-19 lockdown. The public-benefit organization extended concessionary loans to about 10,000 companies in just 34 working days.
Oppenheimer has revealed that the trust now plans to recycle recovered funds into training and other programs that can strengthen small businesses.
His father, Nicky Oppenheimer, has a net worth of $13.5 billion, largely derived from the family’s 2012 sale of De Beers for $5.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Career and investments
Jonathan Oppenheimer began his career at NM Rothschild & Sons, then moved to Anglo American, where he became senior vice president in 1999.
He later held senior roles at De Beers for more than two decades. He founded Oppenheimer Partners in 2016. The firm holds a controlling stake in GZ Industries Ltd., Nigeria’s leading beverage can manufacturer, part of a broader push into African industrial assets.
