Billionaire, astronaut and victor of a decade-long legal wrangle with the South African Reserve Bank, Mark Shuttleworth, has pledged nearly R350-million to help others fight the state in court.
Shuttleworth said in a blog post that exchange controls in South Africa make doing business across borders prohibitively expensive and were to blame for him emigrating and moving most of his assets with him in 2001.
The Reserve Bank forced Shuttleworth, like other émigrés before him and since, to pay an exit tax of 10% on the amount taken out of South Africa.
In 2009, he wanted to take most of the rest of his assets, to the value of R2.5-billion abroad, resulting in fees levied of about R250-million.
He paid the levies and challenged it in court. After losing in the High Court, he appealed.
"Exchange controls may appear to be targeted at a very small number of South Africans but their consequences are significant for all of us," he said.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in his favour.
"We are now considering the continuation of the case in the constitutional court," Shuttleworth said.
"I will put the returned funds of R250-million plus interest into a trust, to underwrite constitutional court cases on behalf of those whose circumstances deny them the ability to be heard where the counterparty is the state."
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
