South African businessman and political activist Eric Molobi has died aged 58 after a battle with cancer, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday.
Born on June 5 1947, Molobi was imprisoned on Robben Island during the apartheid era. While in prison he obtained a bachelor’s degree.
According to the website of Metropolitan Holdings, of which Molobi was group chairperson, he was recruited by the South African Council of Churches to set up a community development programme intended to assist the disadvantaged upon his release from prison.
Molobi was also group chairperson of Kagiso. He co-founded Kagiso Trust Investments in 1994 and had served as its executive chairperson since 1996.
He chaired several companies within the wider Kagiso group, was the vice-chairperson of Imperial Holdings and a former chairperson of Telkom. In 1990, he joined the Kagiso Charitable Trust (Kagiso Trust) as chief executive, where he was responsible for raising funds from foreign government agencies to channel into educational and community development projects in South Africa.
He was awarded the prestigious Ordre National de la Legion D’Honneur by the French government in 1994.
Other positions he held were directorships of Imperial Holdings, Metropolitan Holdings, the National Housing Finance Corporation, Northam Platinum, the Rembrandt Group, NM Rothschild and Sons (South Africa) and Steffen Robertson and Kirsten (South Africa). — Sapa