Business mogul Douw Steyn dies, aged 72

04 February 2025 - 10:55 By TIMESLIVE
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Entrepreneur and philanthropist Douw Steyn has died.
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Douw Steyn has died.
Image: Steyn City Properties

Billionaire insurance mogul and property developer Douw Steyn has died.

Steyn, who had been in poor health for years, was 72 years old.

He leaves behind sons TJ and Louis, daughter Tanya and widow Carolyn Steyn, a music radio presenter and founder of NPO 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day.

“Douw will be remembered as an exceptional entrepreneur who built a global business of immense scale in seven countries and a visionary with a deep-seated commitment to South Africa and its people,” the businesses founded by Steyn said in a joint statement.

Steyn made his fortune after he launched Auto & General Insurance. He also founded companies such as Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH) and the Budget group in the UK, now known as BGL.

Initially, he saw the potential of a monthly policy that covered cars as well as home contents and promoted this type of policy via door-to-door leaflet distribution campaigns via a company he started in 1975 called Steyn’s Insurance Brokers in Johannesburg. He had a stint in the US and then returned to South Africa in 1985 after obtaining an insurance licence that allowed him to sell motor insurance over the telephone. This disrupted the traditional insurance landscape and resulted in the launch of Auto & General Insurance. This success resulted in the launch of some of South Africa’s leading financial service providers including Budget, 1st for Women, Dialdirect, 1Life and Hippo, which are housed under the TIH umbrella.

Steyn later moved to the UK where he established the BGL Group, the parent company of price comparison website Compare the Market. In 2000, the group also launched Auto & General in Australia.

Steyn stepped down as executive chairman of his global business interests in 2012. Collectively, these businesses now employ more than 10,000 people who are based in more than 50 offices globally.

His dream of building a city within a city materialised with the launch of Steyn City, a 2,000 acre residential and lifestyle estate in northern Johannesburg.

The neighbouring communities of Diepsloot and Cosmo City have benefited from various philanthropic pursuits through the Douw Steyn Family Trust and the companies he founded. In 2020, they also pledged R370m to assist Covid-19 relief efforts of which R50m went towards the National Solidarity Fund, R250m to support feeding schemes in Diepsloot, Cosmo City and beyond and a relief fund of up to R70m to support small businesses.

Steyn famously loaned his former Saxonwold home in Johannesburg, now a luxury hotel called the Saxon, to Nelson Mandela for six months after the late statesman's release from prison in 1990 and his estrangement from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Madiba also went on retreats to a private villa built for him by Steyn at the Shambala private game reserve in Limpopo.

Mandela counted Steyn as a good friend while Steyn referred to Madiba as a father figure. In 2005, Mandela paid tribute to Steyn as “not only a great businessman and visionary but one of South Africa's most successful entrepreneurs who enriched the country with his business skills and who believed in its future as a country of opportunity”.

Zelda la Grange, Mandela's former secretary, said Steyn had met with the ANC leadership in Lusaka during the 1980s when it was not favourable for Afrikaners to meet with the ANC. "He saw the writing on the wall and offered support for a new democracy, meeting with OR Tambo and Thabo Mbeki." It was Mbeki who introduced Steyn to Madiba after his release from prison.

He valued the friendship extended to him by Steyn and his then wife Liz, who had given him space to live and work in privacy in Saxonwold and on the nature reserve, she said.

"Madiba greatly appreciated Douw's gesture and they remained friends thereafter. Madiba was like that. Always showing appreciation and never forgetting the smallest act of kindness to him."

Carolyn Steyn on Instagram: "The great man, the Father of our Nation would have turned 105 today. How we miss him. Had President Nelson Mandela been alive today and younger, we would have a different story to tell. Thanks to Douw, I was so lucky to have spent many times with Madiba, sometimes I would have lunch with him on my own, sometimes just sit quietly for hours with him while he read the papers. He alway read the papers from beginning to end. And the stories he would tell over lunches and dinners of life behind bars, of his travels.. “Eat breakfast like a King. Eat lunch like a Prince. And give dinner to your Enemy” was his mantra… Douw built a home for him at our game farm Shambala so Madiba could seek refuge from the pressures of life. That is also where he invited us to spend time with him joining his friends Bill Clinton, Robert de Niro, Queen Beatrix and the now King and Queen of the Netherlands (Wilhelm and Maxima), former President Thabo Mbeki, Oprah, Robert de Niro along with many others… Madiba attended the 50th birthday party that I organised for Douw. His speech was personal and touching. I remember him saying to a very attentive audience of just 50 couples on the Saxon Hotel, Villas and Spa terrace that when he was President, people like Penuell Maduna (who was a guest on the night) would bow to him. “No longer. Now that I have lost power and influence I am a ‘has been’. But at least I am a ‘has been’ with a very powerful friend. Douw Steyn.” So many stories to tell. I can tell you that Madiba has left such an immense hole in Douw’s life. I sometimes play the video of Johnny Clegg at a concert in Frankfurt singing ‘Asimbonanga (Mandela)’ and when Nelson Mandela does his slow rhythmic ‘Madiba Jive’ towards Johnny and the audience of thousands, tears run down my husband’s cheeks. When Johnny asked Madiba if he wanted to say something Madiba said that “It is music and dancing that make me at peace with the world. And at peace with myself.” Tears flowing from me too. Viva Madiba! Viva! Viva 67 Blankets. Viva!! Love, Carolyn"

Mandela was to stay at Steyn's properties many times over the years, she said, and their host "without exception, dealt with Madiba's visits with the utmost respect and discretion."

"What makes Douw's relationship with Madiba stand out from any modern-day wealth and political relationship, is that despite his generosity he never expected anything from Madiba or anyone else for that matter in return.

"Madiba enjoyed his sense of humour coupled with the astute business brain and Douw had the ability to always bring a smile to his face when his name was mentioned... Theirs was a warm friendship and and as a father figure he even sometimes offered life advice to Douw."

In the Waterberg mountains, she said, he enjoyed peace and quiet away from the pressures of a public life. She disclosed Madiba hosted many international celebrities, politicians and philanthropists at Shambala including Lewis Hamilton, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, the royal family of the Netherlands, the Clintons and 46664 concert artists like Brian May, Roger Taylor, Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox, "all at Douw's expense and mostly in his absence."

"Douw was an exceptional host and he often reminded me of Jay Gatsby as depicted in the Great Gatsby film."

He had a persuasive personality and "he did good on his promises," attributes which even those who knew him as a young man vouched for, La Grange said, adding one of her best friends' family were neighbours to Steyn when he was growing up in Johannesburg and starting out in his first job.

"His beginnings were humble but the impact he leaves on the business world will be noted in history books."

La Grange said Steyn had an intense love for nature and at Shambala, he created a thriving wildlife eco-system in the once cattle grazing farm. "At any time you could ask Douw about the welfare of any of the animals on his farm and he would know exactly, to the finest detail, what the plan was to grow and support the system."

Madiba's signature ivory walking stick, made from the tusk of an elephant that died on Shambala, was gifted to him by Steyn. Said La Grange: "Madiba did not have many material belongings but his stick was a prized possession." In her book Good Morning Mr Mandela, she recounted the walking stick was stolen by someone who had access to Madiba's homes. It has still not surfaced.

Steyn's sons, who are involved in a range of real estate and private equity ventures in South Africa, the UK and the US, are also heavily invested in philanthropy work, primarily with the protection of wildlife through the EMS Foundation they established and named in honour of their mother Elizabeth Margaret Steyn. A former social worker, Liz Steyn also supports multiple schools through the foundation.

TimesLIVE


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