Billionaire Rupert Targeted in South Africa Anti-Colonialism Rally

(Bloomberg) -- A South African left-wing party plans to picket outside a wine estate and other farms owned by the nation's richest man to mark the day colonialism started in the country.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, the second-largest opposition party, said its president, Julius Malema, will lead the protest at wine farms in the Western Cape province owned by Richemont's controlling shareholder and chairman Johann Rupert, 71, on Wednesday to mark the day the Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck first arrived in the country. The party will also picket at Rupert's properties in the northern Mpumalanga province.

Van Riebeeck, who in 1652 set up a ship-supply station that became what's known today as Cape Town, is regarded as the first European colonizer of South Africa. Inequality along racial lines persists in the country almost three decades after the end of White-minority rule. The three richest South Africans are White men, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Read: What Monopoly? South African Billionaire Backs White Wealth

The EFF and other left-leaning groups have long targeted Rupert, who has a net worth of $11.1 billion, calling him the face of so-called “White monopoly capital,” a local term referring to the economy being dominated by White people who make up less than 10% of the population.

Richemont is the maker of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels jewelery, as well as Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre watches.

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